Animal testing should be banned.

A brief overview of animal testing: the inhumane practice has been around for thousands of years, back in the days of Aristotle and Erasistratus (roughly 300 BCE). Animals used most commonly in testing include birds, ferrets, mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, cats, and fish. You may have noticed that all of the aforementioned animals are frequently kept as domesticated pets. These animals are among nearly 25 million vertebrate animals[1] who undergo cruel testing procedures every year. These procedures include the testing of cosmetics and medical experiments, among other things. To exemplify the cruelty of these testing procedures, there is the Draize eye test. This test was developed in 1944 by John H. Draize, PhD, to test the level of eye irritation caused by various chemicals. [2] The test is frequently associated with rabbits, but has also been performed on dogs and nonhuman primates. [3] The rabbits, again most frequently used in the experiment, suffer from redness, bleeding, ulcers, and even blindness, and are likely killed upon completion of the experiment. [3] Anesthetics are not required--the rabbits are fully conscious as chemicals are forced into their eyes. The pain is often so severe and so excruciating that the rabbits struggle against restraints, breaking their backs and dying in agony. [4]The example of a rabbit is usually not close enough to home for most. Dogs, however, all. The furry, loving companions that gratefully lap up their food, wag their tails once we pick up the tennis ball, and curl up close to us at night are frequently kept in cold, stark research labs, going unloved and waiting in terror to be pulled from the cage and being forced to endure a painful and unnecessary experiment. In an appallingly cruel experiment at the University of Pennsylvania, puppies were bred to have a degenerative disease which culminates in total blindness. [5] As if this wasn't enough, the beagles, only three weeks old, then had their eyes cut out before they were finally killed. [5]An oft-heard cry from the masses is that these experiments are necessary. The suffering of these loving creatures, necessary? Alas, many are of this belief, the belief that, in over two millennia of animal experimentation, we still have a need to inflict unspeakable suffering on another creature. In these two thousand-plus years, however, we have created more humane alternatives to animal testing. Among these are stem cells and genetic testing methods, microdosing, computerized patients, and in vitro testing methods. [6] Many are skeptical of alternative testing methods, but fail to realize the additional benefits to alternative testing--benefits that go beyond stopping cruelty to animals. These include higher reliability than animal tests, greater accuracy due to the use of human tissue, a more cost-effective procedure, and a more environmentally friendly procedure. [6]The ineffectiveness of animal experiments cannot be denied. A staggering 92% of pharmaceutical drugs that are deemed safe after an animal test fail to pass clinical trials. [7] Of the 8% that do pass these trials, half are pulled from shelves, as they resulted in grave, even lethal side effects for humans. [7] An extremely poignant example of this was the 'invention' of the so-called cancer mouse in the 1980's. A human cancer gene was inserted into the genome of these mice--since then, thousands of cancer mice have been cured, yet we still do not have a cure for cancer. [7] In a German experiment, 51 applications for animal experiments that had been approved in Bavaria were analyzed in regard to their clinical implementation. Ten years later, the research team discovered that not one single project had been demonstrably implemented in human medicine. [7]To allow animal testing to continue is to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of the same creatures we welcome into our homes with open arms and outpouring affection. These animal cannot speak, and the human race has an obligation to give voices to the voiceless, and to help those who cannot help themselves. Animals are creatures who think and feel just as we do, and there are no circumstances under which they deserve to endure the cruelty and pain of experimentation. Sources [1] . http://www.humanesociety.org... [2] . http://www.aavs.org... [3] . http://www.aavs.org... [4] . http://massanimalrights.org... [5] . http://www.peta.org... [6] . http://www.neavs.org... [7] . http://aerzte-gegen-tierversuche.de...