Animal testing does more good than harm.

Good luck to you as well. Before I start, let me clear some things up: -If anyone doesn't know, a contention is another word for point or assertion, I will be using this word in my speeches. Also, c means contention as well (like if I say C1 it means Contention 1. -Also, a criterion (also called standard) is something which the judge chooses who wins the debate by, it is part of framework. For example, if the criterion is health (and both sides accept this criterion), then all arguments that don't involve health are invalid, because the judge, or in this case the voters, are only focusing on health. -Lastly, if, at any time, I say "we", "our", or similar words in my speech, it means my team, which in this case is just myself (sorry, used to typing out cases for a team of multiple people). Ok, let's get into it! I'm going to start with my criterion. The criterion of this debate is lives. Of course, all species" lives matter, but humans are paramount. Even still, we will prove how animal testing benefits all species, not just humans. Now here are my contentions. C1: Animal testing contributes to cures and treatments that save lives. The majority of the medical breakthroughs that have happened in the last 100 years were direct results from animal research and experimentation, according to the California Biomedical Research Association. Without this testing, both human and animal lives would be lost in numbers far greater than the amount of animals tested. For example, The Anderson Cancer Center animal research associated the vaccine for Hepatitis B with chimpanzee testing. Without these experimentations, thousands, if not millions, of those with Hepatitis B would have been killed every year. The same cancer center also said that animal testing is our only hope for a vaccine to Hepatitis C, proving that animal testing is our best option that we have currently as well as in the future. So we just proved that humans benefit from animal testing, but we can go a step further and say that animals also benefit from testing. If vaccines were not tested on animals, millions of animals would have died from rabies, distemper, feline leukemia, infectious hepatitis virus, tetanus, anthrax, and canine parvovirus. Some examples of species being saved are the black-footed ferret and the California condor, in both of which animal testing was instrumental. (American Association for Laboratory Animal Science) The truth is, animal testing benefits everyone. Even if there is a small amount of suffering, the lives of humans as well as all other animal species being saved completely outweighs it, which is why even the The American Veterinary Medical Association, complete with over 86,000 vets, many of which work for the government, announced that they endorse animal testing. C2: Animal testing is the necessary method of testing. Now, in our previous contention we talked about how animal testing saves lives, but you may be thinking "that might be true, but there are other methods". In reality, however, animal testing is the best, most efficient, and thus needed method of testing. There is no adequate alternative to testing on an animal. Living systems like human beings and animals are extremely complex. Many tested on animals are also very closely related to humans, which makes them even better subjects. For example, chimpanzees share 99% of their DNA with humans, and mice are 98% genetically similar to humans. (California Biomedical Research Association) This shows that animals are the best method of testing, and they help us more so than any other way. That's it for my first speech. I now welcome my opponent to present theirs.