Diodati, 1

Lauren Diodati

Miss Johnson

ELA 9

22 March 2017

Animal testing is an injustice that needs to be stopped, killing around 100 million innocent

animals each year in the United States alone. Opposing opinions might say that animal abuse comes

with the price of medical and cosmetic advances. They say that in order to create medicines, we need

to use animals to test them, making sure they dont harm the humans that will be using them. They also

state that because of animal testing, we are working towards cures for cancer, and other illnesses that

have never been able to cure before. Animal testing is an injustice that kills thousands of innocent

animals every day.

Animal testing is an injustice because the animals are tortured and even killed, just for the

benefit of humans health and education. In Kathy Guillermos article, Zika Response Should Not

Include Animal Experiments, she says, Animals rarely have the same diseases as humans, but when

they have the same diseases, Their bodies react differently from ours, (Guillermo, Zika Response

Should Not Include Animal Experiments). This quote shows how animals have to be tortured many

times until labs gets a certain medication right, then it may have been for nothing if the medication

causes harm to humans. This also shows the harsh reality that labs decide to resort to animals to test

medicine for humans, so that we will be safe and healthy. In Darryl Fears article, One Last U.S.

Medical School Still Killed Animals to Teach Surgery.. he shows the extent that people go to, to

teach students how to practice surgeries. In the article, it states that, Johns Hopkins sacrificed up to

40 pigs a year for a class that teaches surgical skills, said a spokeswoman, Audrey M. Huang, (Fears,

One Last U.S. Medical School Still Killed Animals to Teach Surgery). This shows how animals are
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being killed, just for students education, when other options for teaching are available. This also shows

the mass amounts of animals that are being killed, with just one class in one school killing 40 pigs every

year, which reveals how many animals die on an international scale. To conclude this, animal testing is

a strategy of personal advances that hurts innocent animals, and supplies to humans.

Another reason that animal testing is an injustice is because of the way animals are treated

while in the facilities where tests occur. In Petas video, This is Animal Research, they show how

inhumanely the staff treats the animals with one employee holding up a cat to its wire fenced cage,

then saying, Grab it. Do it so I can pull out your nails when you do it, (Peta, This is Animal

Research). This shows how the poor animals that already have to be tortured by chemicals and

medicines, are also tortured when they arent being tested. This also reveals the extent that labs go to--

to make new medicines, having to harm animals in and outside of the tests. Another example is a

picture in the article by Peta titled, Avon, Mary Kay, Este Lauder (and Subsidiary MAC Cosmetics),

and Revlon Are Paying for Tests on Animals. This picture shows a bunny backed into the corner of a

cage with his skin, exposed and bloody. This picture shows how the animals are put through awful

testing leaving them in pain, then just put them back in their cages without any compassion for them. It

also shows how much the animals go through, being put in so much pain for tests, then just thrown

back into their cages, with the employees either waiting for them to die, or put them back into their next

test. In conclusion, when animals are in the labs being used for testing, theyre being thrown from test

to test like they arent alive, and like they dont feel any pain.

Some may say that animal testing allows advances in the medical field, giving us new

opportunities to make ground-breaking medicine, antibiotics, and even cures to diseases that were

never curable before. In the article Animal Testing and Its Gift to Humans, by Frankie L. Trull, they

state, Thanks to the work of scientists and physicians at Duke University, an experimental new

treatment for glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM--an aggressive tumor that kills about 12,000 people in
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the U.S. each year--is saving the lives of patients who, just months ago, had little hope of survival,

(Trull, Animal Testing and Its Gift to Humans). This quote shows how animal testing does have its

benefits, like curing diseases that werent curable before. This also show the advances that the medical

field has been able to make because of animal testing. In another article called, Look to Animals to

Cure Ebola, also by Frankie L. Trull, they state that scientists have created a new serum to cure Ebola,

that was made safe because of testing on monkeys, then continues to say, The serum has been

credited with saving the lives of two American aid workers who tested positive for the virus, (Trull,

Look to Animals to Cure Ebola). This shows how animal testing has given success to the medical field

by creating cures to deadly diseases. This also shows how animal testing has saved lives by using

them in the labs to test newly formed medicines. In conclusion, animal testing opens new opportunities

in the medical field to cure diseases and illnesses never curable before.

However, scientists have come up with many new discoveries for alternatives to animal testing.

The article, Could Technology End Animal Testing? by Patricia Torres, she explains this by stating,

The "Human on a Chip" program shifts the experiments from living animals to the lab by replicating

cells of human organs and tissues, exposing them to chemicals and using electrical signals to measure

the response. (Torres, Could Technology End Animal Testing?). This shows how we are abusing

and even killing animals for the benefit of humans, which is unnecessary because alternatives exist.

This also explains how the Human on a Chip program is initiating the extinction of animal testing,

showing that its keeping animals safe, and giving more accurate results. In the article, Animal Testing:

Could It Ever Be Banned Completely? by Bianca Nogrady, it states that there is new technological

advances that, Might at least reduce the number of animals used in medical research or even--as

many hope--take them out of the equation altogether. (Nogrady, Animal Testing: Could It Ever Be

Banned Completely?). This quote shows how there is new technology that is completely capable of

doing what animal testing can do, and even more, but without the negatives. This quote also shows

how scientists are also pushing new technology that stops the harassment of innocent animals. All in
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all, animal testing should stop, because there are alternatives that dont harm animals, and are more

accurate.

In conclusion, animal testing only benefits humans for medical research and cosmetic safety,

treats the animals poorly in the facilities-- whether theyre in or outside of a test, and it is still being used

even though there are alternatives for testing, like the Human on a Chip program, that stops abuse of

animals, and gives more accurate results. As one of the largest injustices that still occurs, animal

testing must be stopped. Even though there are some benefits from animal testing, the negatives

greatly outweigh the positives. With animals being thrown around in the labs, to permanent physical

and mental disabilities as a result of the tests, and to more than 100 million animals dying every year in

the U.S. alone, animal testing is the largest provider to animal abuse to date. We need to show the

world the reality behind animal testing, in order to keep it from happening in the future. People that

dont know about animal testing need to see the videos, pictures, and statistics that show what animal

testing is really about. They need to realize what happens behind the making of their favorite perfume,

or the medications that they use.

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Works Cited

Guillermo, Kathy. "Zika Response Should Not Include Animal Experiments." People for the Ethical

Treatment of Animals. 28 Jul. 2016: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 08 Nov. 2016.

Fears, Darryl. "One Last U.S. Medical School Still Killed Animals to Teach Surgery....." Washington

Post - Blogs. 30 Jun. 2016: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 08 Nov. 2016.

"This Is Animal Research." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

Torres, Patricia. "Could Technology End Animal Testing?." <I>Mercury News</I>. 19 Jul. 2016: A.1.

<I>SIRS Issues Researcher.</I> Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

Nogrady, Bianca. "Animal Testing: Could It Ever Be Banned Completely?." <I>ABC Premium News</I>.

19 Aug. 2016: n.p. <I>SIRS Issues Researcher.</I> Web. 08 Nov. 2016.

Trull, Frankie L. &quot;Animal Testing and its Gifts to Humans.&quot;<i> Wall Street Journal</i>, 24

Apr, 2015, pp. A.11<i>, SIRS Issues Researcher</i>, <a href="https://sks.sirs.com"

target="_blank">https://sks.sirs.com</a>.

Trull, Frankie L. &quot;Look to Animals to Cure Ebola.&quot;<i> Baltimore Sun</i>, 02 Feb, 2015, pp.

A.13<i>, SIRS Issues Researcher</i>, <a href="https://sks.sirs.com"

target="_blank">https://sks.sirs.com</a>.

"This Is Animal Research." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.

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"Avon, Mary Kay, Este Lauder (and Subsidiary MAC Cosmetics), and Revlon Are Paying for Tests on

Animals." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.