Animal Abuse/Testing

This is a sensitive topic for "animal lovers", but personal stance must not influence logic. I love my dog and fish tank, but I can still be an animal lover while supporting animal testing. To win this debate, Pro will have had to have shown that life quality for organisms around the world would be better off without animal testing. My argument will highlight what animal testing has done globally for humanity and animals. Although not a rabbit, a human is an animal too.. this must be kept in mind. Animal testing has been the catalyst of breakthroughs and cures for almost every major disease on planet earth. Without conducting research test on animals, organisms in every biome would experience a lower rate of survival. Humans are not the only organisms that benefit from research conducted on animals. Endangered species, Pets, and regular wildlife have also received the benefits of animal testing. I will highlight a few examples of human benefit, then switch to how wild animals have benefited. Cancer = 60% of break throughs in cancer survivorship since 1975 can be attributed to medicine. Thanks to breakthroughs in treating cancer, life expectancy in the United States has risen by 10.7%. Humanity has long battled cancer, and anyone who has been personally effected will tell you that "Cancer sucks". Thankfully, everyday we get closer to eradicating this disease. An overwhelming majority of the medicines that are used to battle cancer are a product of Animal testing. Below I will name a couple. - Childhood Leukemia = The most common of all childhood cancers, once had a survival rate of 4%. Today, the survival rate for Leukemia is 80%. A good part of this increase is directly related to research conducted on animals. With better medicine comes better treatment, and this medicine would not exist if it were not for everything learned through animal testing. - Breast Cancer = effecting 180,000 women a year, breast cancer is unfortunately all too common in society. Herceptin and Tamoxifen are the 2 most common drugs to help treat this disease. These drugs were developed through animal testing. Together, they have made the survival rate of breast cancer a little over 75%. Diabetes = 18.2 million people in the US are living with a form of diabetes. Research on supplementing insulin is yet another product of animal testing. Dog's and cat's with diabetes also live longer, healthier lives thanks to this research. Heart Disease = The most common reason for death in the United States is Heart Disease. Statins are taken daily by millions of americans to lower cholesterol, and you guessed it.. they exist thanks to animal testing. These are just a few of the 1,000's of ailments that are now treatable due to testing done on animals. But enough about us humans, let's talk about the benefits to wildlife.. Rabies = now under control thanks to the testing done on animals. This disease once posed a threat to wild life, but now the threat has been severely reduced and a vaccine exist. Ticks = It is no secret that ticks carry disease. Thanks to research on ticks and animals infested with ticks, we now have much better ways to eliminate ticks in the wild. This is a huge benefit to almost every animal in the world and has raised quality of life. Reproduction = Through studying reproduction habits and developing artificial insemination we can now boost the birth rates of endangered species. Parasitism - Parasites have harmed living organisms since their initial existence. By studying animals that are infected with parasites we have discovered methods to eradicate the parasite without killing the animal. These are just a few ways animal testing has improved the quality of life in wild creatures. When the next disease breaks out via parasites or ticks we will be ready to combat it and save countless amounts of wildlife thanks to facts learned through animal testing. ****** Refutal I: Pro argues that humans should be able to receive payment to be tested on. In every experiment you need a control (in this case a humans with the same problem that receive no treatment) and that is not only completely impractical but the highest level of inhumane. I believe this is a horrifying idea. People could potentially be sold into the "Human Testing Trade" similarly to what occurs in the sex trade. More horrifyingly.. this would open the door for the potential of people being bred for the soul purpose of being tested. I believe this is a reckless idea that could threaten core moral ideals of society and humanity as a whole. Refutal II: Although most animals do have a central nervous system it is a fallacy to believe that they "think in the same way that we do." I can assure you there are not two squirrels in a tree right now debating the ethics behind animal testing. It is also not true to insinuate that they feel and comprehend pain in the same way that we do. Yes they feel pain, but to what extent? What about possible psychological side effects? Are we to pretend that animals mentally process depression and anxiety to the degree of humans? Refutal III: "Animal testing costs lots of money and time but most of the money they use is actually taxpayers money." My response to this is simple, what is the monetary vale for the price of a human life? If Your child had cancer, what would you pay to increase their chance of survival? If Your mother had cancer, what would you pay for drugs that could save her life? I'll leave that for all to answer. (The government spends much more money harming living creatures through war.. but I won't go there) Refutal IV: "Harvard has created a system that uses human cells grown inside a machine made to replicate human diseases and drug responses more accurate than animal testing." Until Harvard can create living organs out of cells, a vast majority of diseases will not be testable via this method. How can drugs that purify the body during kidney failure be tested on human cells and not an actual kidney? This is just one of many diseases that would not have any practical use for this method. Refutal V: Why is animal testing bad, but breeding and raising animals for human consumption is acceptable?.. In no way does any other organism benefit from that practice except humans. In conclusion, I believe it is undeniable that animal testing has increased the overall life quality of all organisms on Earth. A global ban on animal testing would degrade the average quality of life on planet earth. Not only do humans benefit, but so do all animals. Pro want's to save animals from testing by substituting them with human's, but seems to forget that we are animals too. Although I respect Pro's opinion, and love my dog and fish as well, I do not believe there is any way one can vote in favor of Pro's argument without realizing they are voting in favor of lowering the average quality of life for all living organisms. Sources: http://www.amprogress.org... http://www.farmanddairy.com... http://hms.harvard.edu...