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Michelle Ramos Artero


English 28
Ms.Batty
3,November 2016
Inhumane Animal Testing
Animal testing is a very serious issue. It began in the 17th century and the problem has
progressed ever since. You would think that the amount of animals being used for testing would
have lead to a huge remarkable discovery, but in reality it has only led us to ineffective
experiment, unprofitable funding, and the cost of many lives of innocent animals.
What most people dont know is that more than half of the experiment conducted on
animals are unreliable. Now you may be thinking, well every experiment has its flaws. Yes, i
agree, but if more than half of the experiment being conducted are unreliable shouldnt that tell
us, Hey may we should find a better way to test out our products? According to petas websites
it states that The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has noted that 92 percent of all drugs
that are shown to be safe and effective in animal tests fail in human trials because they dont
work or are dangerous. And of the small percentage of drugs approved for human use, half end
up being relabeled because of side effects that were not identified in tests on animals. This
means that even the drugs that are suitable for humans have to be relabeled because of the side
effect it has that werent detected in the animals. This just proves that our bodies do not work the
same as animals, and that their ability to adapt to medication is much different than ours. With
that being said, most animals are introduced to conditions that the would normally never face.
The most common testing on animals is tested to find a cure for cancer. This experiment usually
are conducted on mice. This particular situation also relates to an incident that happened in the

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book of The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.. In the book Skloot explains
how Patients injected with cells not told they were cancer..(133) meaning they werent given
the consent, just as the animals. Both subjects were unaware of what was happening.
Most advocate for animal testing will argue that animal testing is a necessary thing that
scientist or medical student must do to get proper database. This statement is not true. Many
people who are pursuing something in the medical field do not need to perform testing on animal
to be certified. More than 98 percent of U.S. medical schoolsincluding Yale, Harvard, and
Stanforddo not use any animals to train medical students, and experience with animal
dissection or experimentation on live animals is not required or expected of those applying to
medical school. Medical students are trained with a combination of sophisticated human-patient
simulators, interactive computer programs, safe human-based teaching methods, and clinical
experience.Today, one can even become a board-certified surgeon without harming any
animals.(peta). What most people dont know is that we live in a world where technology has
drastically changed the way things are conducted in the medical field. 2016 New England AntiVivisection Society, a nonprofit organization explains how scientist develop an alternative
method that shown to be safer, more effective products/drugs for humans than testing on animals.
These alternatives are skinethic, episkin, and a sophisticated computer based call QSAR, MRI,
CT scans , virtual drug test, etc( neavs..org). Their are so many options out there now, then there
were before technology came around. Theres no need to waste an animal's life, when they re
better/cheaper alternative.
Lastly, what people are uninformed about animal testing is the cost. People think that
animal testing only happens to stray animal but that is not the case. Every year in the U.S.,
animal experimentation gobbles up billions of dollars (including 40 percent of all research

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funding from the National Institutes of Health), and nearly $3 trillion is spent on health care.
While funding for animal experimentation and the number of animals used in experiments
continues to increase, the U.S. still ranks 42nd in the world in life expectancy and has a high
infant mortality rate compared to other developed countries(peta). Animals are actually bought
for scientists to conduct their experiment. How do you feel that 40 percent of your money is
going to a fund that not only torture animals, but more than 92% of the experiment fails. People
dont realize that the animals that are being bought arent just receiving a few harmless pain.
They are brutally burned, poisoned,shocked,isolated,starved,forcibly restrained, addicted to
drugs, and brain-damaged. All this is allowed by the AWA (Animal Welfare Act). The poor,
brutally tortured animals arent even required to be given pain kills. Each year over 100 million
animals are killed during these experiments according to hsi.org.
Animal testing is not only inhumane, but it is also time consuming, ineffective in the
coast, and a waste of a precious innocent life of an animal. Before you think about being
protesting for animals think of your pets, or an animal that has made an impact in your life,
children's life, relatives life, basically any animal that holds a significant value. .Now Picture
that animal that you hold dearly to your heart being taken away to be tortured. It's a tough image
to paint. You may not care about animals being tortured, but just remember somewhere out there
thats someone else pride and possession.

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Work cited
peta. "Animal Testing Is Bad Science: Point/Counterpoint." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 15
Nov. 2016.
"In Testing | Alternatives to Animal Testing and Research." In Testing | Alternatives to Animal
Testing and Research. 2016 New England Anti-Vivisection Society, a National 501(c)(3)
Nonprofit Organization, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown, 2010. Print.

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