Animal Testing Using Animals example essay topic

Animal Testing Using Animals for testing is wrong and should be banned. They should be entitled to the rights we have. Every day humans are using defenseless animals for cruel and most often useless tests. The animals cannot fight for themselves therefore we must. There should be stronger laws to protect them from laboratory experiments. Although private companies run most labs, experiments are often conducted by public organizations.

The U.S. government, the Army and Air Force in particular, has designed and conducted many animal experiments. The experiments were engineered so that many animals would suffer and die without any certainty that this suffering and death would save a single life, or benefit humans in any way at all. An example of this is some tens of thousands of Beagles experimented with. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, 64 Beagles were forced to inhale radioactive Strontium 90 as part of a "Fission Product Inhalation Program" which has been paid for by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. In this experiment 26 dogs died. One of the deaths occurred during an epileptic seizure; another from brain hemorrhage.

Other dogs, before death, became feverish and anemic, lost their appetites, and had hemorrhages. The experimenters compared their results to those experiments conducted at the University of Utah and the Argonne National Laboratory in which beagles were injected with Strontium 90. They concluded that the dose needed to produce "early death" in fifty percent of the sample group differed from test to test because the dogs injected with Strontium 90 retain more of the radioactive substance than dogs forced to inhale it. Also, at the University of Rochester School of Medicine a group of experimenters put fifty beagles in wooden boxes and tested them with different levels of radiation by x-rays. Twenty-one of the dogs died within the first two weeks. The irritated dogs suffered vomiting, diarrhea, and lost their appetites.

Later, they hemorrhaged from the mouth, nose, and eyes. In the experimenter's report, they compared the experiment to others of the same nature, each using about seven hundred dogs. The experimenters said that the injuries produced in their experiments were "typical of those described for the dog". Another inexcusable experiment was conducted by the Food and Drug Administration. They gave thirty beagles and thirty pigs a pesticide in their food, seven days a week for six months, "in order to insure tissue damage". Within eight weeks, eleven dogs showed signs of "abnormal behavior" including nervousness, salivation, muscle spasms, and convulsions.

After experimenting with additional twenty beagles, the experiments concluded that massive daily doses of pesticide produce different effects in dogs than they do in pigs. These three experiments, according to reports, obviously caused the animal to suffer greatly before dying. No steps were taken to prevent this suffering, even when it was clear that the radiation or poison made the animals extremely sick. Also, these experiments are part of series of similar ones, repeated over and over with only minor variations and are being carried out all over the country every day. These experiments DO NOT save human lives or improve them in any way. It was already known that Strontium 90 is unhealthy before the beagles died; and the experimenters who poisoned the dogs and pigs with the pesticide knew beforehand that the large amounts they were feeding the animals (amounts no human could ever consume) would cause damage.

In any case, as the differing results they obtained from pigs and dogs make it clear, it is not possible to reach any firm conclusion about the effects of a substance on humans from tests on other species. No law requires that cosmetics or household products be tested on animals. Nevertheless, by six 'o clock tonight, hundreds of animals will have their skin, eyes, or stomachs unnecessarily burned or destroyed. Many animals will suffer and die this year to produce "new" versions of deodorant, hairspray, lipstick, nail polish, and lots of other products we use everyday. Some of the largest companies in the world use animals to test their products. One of the tests they perform is the Drazie test.

The main candidates for this experiment is are albino rabbit. They are preferred because they are docile, cheap, and their eyes do not shed tears (so chemicals placed in them do not wash out). They are also the test subjects of choice because their eyes are clear, making it easier to observe the destruction of they eye tissue. During each test the rabbits are immobilized (usually in a "stock", with only their heads protruding) and a solid or liquid is placed in the lower lid of each rabbit... These substances can range from mascara to after-shave to oven cleaner. The rabbit's eyes remain clipped open.

Anesthesia is almost never used. After that, the rabbits are examined at intervals of one, twenty-four, forty-eight, seventy-two, and one hundred and sixty-eight hours. Technicians record reactions, which may range from severe inflammation, to damage of the cornea, to the rupture of the eyeball. Some studies continue for a period of weeks. No other attempt is made to treat the rabbits or to seek any antidotes. The rabbits that survive the Drazie test may then be used as subjects for skin-inflammation tests.

Every day of the year, hundreds of thousands of innocent fully conscious animals are tortured to death, dying slowly in agonizing pain. I see no reason for this suffering. I feel that animal testing is inhumane and no animal should be forced to endure such torture. A waist of a life is a terrible thing. How did it ever get this way?