Assignment # 3 Academic writing

Stop Animal Testing

Using animals in research and to test the safety of products has been a topic of heated
debate for decades. According to data collected by F. Barbara Orlans for her book, In the
Name of Science: Issues in Responsible Animal Experimentation, sixty percent of all
animals used in testing are used in biomedical research and product-safety testing (62).
People have different feelings for animals; many look upon animals as companions while
others view animals as a means for advancing medical techniques or furthering
experimental research. the fact remains that animals are being exploited by research
facilities and cosmetics companies all across the country and all around the world. Although
humans often benefit from successful animal research, the pain, the suffering, and the
deaths of animals are not worth the possible human benefits. Therefore, animals should not
be used in research or to test the safety of products.

First, animals' rights are violated when they are used in research. Tom Regan, a philosophy
professor at North Carolina State University, states: "Animals have a basic moral right to
respectful treatment. . . . Yet animals' rights are violated when they are used in research
because they are not given a choice. Animals are subjected to tests that are often painful or
cause permanent damage or death, and they are never given the option of not participating
in the experiment. Regan further says, for example, that "animal [experimentation] is
morally wrong no matter how much humans may benefit because the animal's basic right
has been infringed. Risks are not morally transferable to those who do not choose to take
them" (qtd. in Orlans 26). Animals do not willingly sacrifice themselves for the
advancement of human welfare and new technology. Their decisions are made for them
because they cannot vocalize their own preferences and choices.

Next, the pain and suffering that experimental animals are subject to is not worth any
possible benefits to humans. "The American Veterinary Medial Association defines animal
pain as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience perceived as arising from a specific
region of the body and associated with actual or potential tissue damage" (Orlans 129).
Animals feel pain in many of the same ways that humans do; in fact, their reactions to pain
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Assignment # 3 Academic writing
are virtually identical (both humans and animals scream, for example). When animals are
used for product toxicity testing or laboratory research, they are subjected to painful and
frequently deadly experiments. Two of the most commonly used toxicity tests are the
Draize test and the LD50 test, both of which are infamous for the intense pain and suffering
they inflect upon experimental animals. In the Draize test the substance or product being
tested is placed in the eyes of an animal (generally a rabbit is used for this test).

Finally, the testing of products on animals is completely unnecessary because viable

alternatives are available. Many cosmetic companies, for example, have sought better ways
to test their products without the use of animal subjects. In Against Animal Testing, a
pamphlet published by The Body Shop, a well-known cosmetics and bath-product company
based in London, the development of products that "use natural ingredients, like bananas
and Basil nut oil, as well as others with a long history of safe human usage" is advocated
instead of testing on animals (3). Furthermore, the Draize test has become practically
obsolete because of the development of a synthetic cellular tissue that closely resembles
human skin. Researchers can test the potential damage that a product can do to the skin by
using this artificial "skin" instead of testing on animals.

In conclusion, animal testing should be eliminated because it violates animals' rights, it

causes pain and suffering to the experimental animals, and other means of testing product
toxicity are available. Humans cannot justify making life better for themselves by randomly
torturing and executing thousands of animals per year to perform laboratory experiments or
to test products. Animals should be treated with respect and dignity, and this right to decent
treatment is not upheld when animals are exploited for selfish human gain. After all,
humans are animals too.

Against Animal Testing. The Body Shop, 1993.

Balls, Michael. "Time to Reform Toxic Tests." New Scientist 134 (1992):31-33.

Orlans, F. Barbara. In the Name of Science: Issues in Responsible Animal

Experimentation. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.

Silcock, Sheila. "Is Your Experiment Really Necessary?" New Scientist 134 (1992): 32-34.