Application Paper on Animal Testing University Campuses

Application Paper on Animal Testing University Campuses
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Application Paper on Animal Testing University Campuses
Animal testing is not a new thing in scientific and medical research. It has been in existence for many decades. It is the practice where animals are used in a university setting for scientific research, academic studies, training, and education of veterinary and medical students Many university campuses across the United States and the United Kingdom have animal testing labs. In the United States, the program is funded by the federal government. The university campuses running such programs include the University of Oklahoma, University of Washington, Oregon Health & Science University, the University of California at Davis, among others (Farr, 2014). These universities have, for one reason or the other, mainly been accused by animal activists for conducting cruel animal research and testing. The program is overseen by individual university’s Institution Animal care and Use Committee (IACUC). Supporters of animal research in school laboratories argue that it helps find medical or health solutions for solving human health problems and gives students a first-hand experience in understand how they develop the solutions through experiments on animals. However, others argue against such tests claiming the tests are done in an inhumane manner and subject the animals to suffering. This notwithstanding, animals test have not only advanced the medical field greatly but have helped the human race solve majority of their health problems.
Holder Tom in his article on standing up for science (2014) argues that animal testing has yielded numerous medical breakthroughs that are of benefit to not only the human race but also other animals especially domestic ones. Holder argues that the best way to understand the health outcome of a human being is first by testing on the drug and see if it helps solve the problem at hand. He argues that the need to test on the animals is driven by the fact that animals have similar characteristics that are almost similar to human beings, thereby, making them the main target for tests. Dr. David Jentsch, a researcher on studies aimed at treating human drug addiction and who was interviewed by CNN in the article “Animal rights activists, UCLA researchers square off at protest” argued that “ULCA points to research advances in breast cancer treatments, Parkinson's disease and artificial heart technology that relied on experiments involving lab animals at their California facilities” (Conder, 2009). According to him these medical solutions could not have been possible had they not been tested on animals. He further opines that the use of such approaches especially in university laboratories helps position the students for the real world outside there and helps them understand how to maneuver in carrying out experiments when searching for solutions. Therefore, the narrative that animal testing is useless is unsustainable.
Those campaigning against animal testing want the program abandoned or replaced with practice sensitive to animal welfare. Baumans in his 2005 article “Science-based assessment of animal welf...