Should Animal Testing be Abolished?

Should Animal Testing be Abolished?
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course name & number
Professor
Due date
Using animals in research experiments has always been a hotly debated topic. According to People for the Ethical Treating of Animals (PETA), one hundred million animals, such as cats, dogs, mice, rats, frogs, rabbits, pigs, monkeys, birds, and fish, die in US laboratories as a result of animal testing. The animals are used for drug research and developing medical treatments, curious experimentation, learning biology and safety testing food, products, and chemicals (PETA, 2022). While some people view animals as companions, others treat them as experiment subjects who inhale toxic chemicals, are burned, infected with diseases, abused, crippled, and have holes drilled in their skulls to advance human safety and health. While society deems it unethical to experiment on humans first due to the dangers, exposing animals to similar risks is inhumane, unethical, and unreliable, and with effective alternative testing methods available, animal testing should be abolished.
The primary reason for abolishing testing on animals is that it is inhumane. According to the Humane Society, animals are exposed to severe and extreme treatment despite experiments being classified as mild. These include being infected with deadly diseases, poisoned with toxic chemicals, barred in small cages, restrained, having holes drilled in their skull, denied food and water, and having skin burned off to observe the healing process (McArthur, 2022). Consequently, they are severely harmed, endure unexplainable pain and debilitating fear, and endure the medications’ and chemicals’ horrid side effects. The stress of their treatment and environment causes some of them to develop irrational behavior such as repeatedly spinning, swaying back and forth, biting themselves, and pulling their fur out. Further, at the end of the experiments, they are euthanized, while others are killed through asphyxiation by carbon dioxide, neck-breaking, and decapitation or left to die from the effects of the tests. Animals, just like humans, have nervous systems, chemical transmitters, and emotions that contribute to feeling pain. According to Dunnuck, an animal rights campaigner, “animals and people are alike in many ways: they both feel, think, behave and experience pain. Thus, they should be treated with the same respect as humans (Grooms, 2021).” Therefore, exposing them to such horrendous agony and untold suffering is unacceptable and callous.
Animal testing is unethical as it violates the rudimentary principle of ethical research. According to Deborah Smith (2003), principles of research ethics dictate that research should respect the participants, be beneficial to society while not causing harm, and be fair to those participating. Animal testing takes a toll on the life of animals and leads to painful deaths. While scientists attempt to minimize their pain and suffering, housing them in tiny cages in labs away from fellow animals and infecting them with diseases and injuries does not respect the lives and needs of the animals. Despite the benefits of such testing, forcefully burdening thinking and feeling animals without their conse...