Madison Ries

Dr. Angela Mitchell

UWRT 1104

31 October 2017

Animal Testing

Animal testing is the research conducted by scientists to test how a product or an

environment will affect a specific type of animal. To predict different safety variables

and effectiveness for products, animals have traditionally been involved in the

testing. More than one hundred million different kinds of animals are killed in different

laboratories each year and most people do not even know about it. Is there not a better

way to conduct research on products and chemicals that does not harm animals or

humans? In fact, scientists have developed many new testing methods that have shown

to lead to more effective products and drugs for animal testing.

The idea of testing on animals has been used throughout decades, originally during

the age of Aristotle. It has not been a major problem until a few years ago. Lots of

biomedical research has been put under severe criticism from animal protection and

animal rights groups. Laws have been passed in several countries to make the practice

more humane. Debates on the ethics of animal testing have greatly increased since the

seventeenth century. Those against, agree that the benefit to humans does not justify the

harm to animals. Many people also believe that animals are inferior to humans and very

different from them.

 When buying a cosmetic product at a store, one does not usually consider the fact

that this product might have been tested on animals. Little did they know, if this said

product was tested on animals, the testing conducted could be harmful to animals,

whether it takes their lives or not. Animal testing can cause the animal physical pain and

it can cause them psychological distress. It is said that 50 percent of adults in the United

states oppose animal testing. The other 50 percent believes that it is necessary for

medical progression. There are alternative methods to animal testing that people need to

consider.

Some benefits of alternative methods are that scientific methods are often more

reliable than testing on animals, non-animal testing is cost efficient, more predictive,

practical, and cruelty free products are more environmentally friendly.

One type of alternative method to animal testing is in vitro testing, which means

test tube testing. This type of testing uses methods and models based on human cell

tissue and culture. In-vitro testing is used to test new chemicals and products on human

skin, it is toxicology testing. Scientist take tissue samples from either animals or humans

and prepare them for laboratory study. The main limitation to in in-vitro testing is that it

limits the result to a cellular level and cannot replace whole-body testing.

Another type of alternative method would be computer models and simulations.

This type of testing is used for automobile crash testing, heart studies, and modeling the

effects of new medicines. This is a method that uses virtual metabolism programs,

human organs, and other math based and computer based approaches to study the human
body structure, fractions, and reactions. The only limitation is that these simulations

usually need to be tested on animals to be confirmed.

Microdosing is another alternative method of animal testing. Microdosing is

where humans are given very low quantities of a drug to test the effects of the drug on a

cellular level. This method allows humans to be safely substitute in some drug testing.

Microdosing gives humans a high enough dose of a drug to cause cellular effects but too

low of a dosage to effect the entire body. The only limitation of this method is that it is

considered the earliest phase of the clinical drug trial, this is know known as phase

0. Animal testing with the full dose of the drug is necessary to determine its safety and

efficiency for drug approval.

Another alternative form of animal testing is microfluidic chip testing. This type

of testing is used to study biological and disease processes, and drug

metabolism. Microfluidic chips contain samples of tissues from different parts of the

body that are linked by microchannels through which a blood substitute flows, mimicking

processes and pathways in the body. Compared to in vitro testing, this method provides

more complex information.

Imaging studies is another alternative method of animal testing. Images studies is

a wide range of technologies used for seeing inside the body. This includes magnetic

resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (FMRI), positron emission tomography (

PET), and single-emission computed tomography (SPECT). This method is used to

observe the effects of drugs in the body, studying brain function and structure, and
studying brain and other neurological disorders. The limitations of this type of testing

cannot reveal all drug effects in the body.

All of the alternative methods stated above can and will help to stop the use of

animal testing in labs. The only problem is there are two sides to this. There is a side

that will continue using animals as test subjects. There is also a side that is against the

usage of animals as test subjects, the animal protection groups like PETA. What needs to

happen for these methods to become the new standard for animal testing is for scientists

to abide by the new methods. Also, these methods will require scientists to become more

affiliated with the change. Scientists are currently used to testing on animals without a

problem. If scientists start using these new methods, it would take more time to test

products because they would be required to learn how to properly and professionally use

these methods.

In conclusion, animal testing is used all around the world. It is not likely that

animal testing will come to a complete stop in the next few years. It will take a long time

before animal testing is completely obliterated but with all of the new methods being

developed the hope is that it will be completely wiped out.

Not MLA yet

Sources: http://www.neavs.org/alternatives/in-testing

http://animalresearch.thehastingscenter.org/facts-sheets/alternatives-to-animals/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3123518/