According to PETA’s website, over 100 million animals suffer and are abused a year. The animals are used for drug, food, chemical and cosmetics tests. The animals tested on are mice, rats, monkeys, rabbits, dogs and cats to just name a few. Their skin is burned off, their eyes are injected with different substances, they are force fed, they are kept in cages and sometimes die.
Animals and humans are not the same biologically. Something that works on an animal may not work on a human. For example, there was a drug called thalidomide which was prescribed in many countries in the early 1960’s. It’s main cause was to lessen morning sickness in pregnant women. When tested on animals there was no significant birth defects, but when pregnant women took it, their children came out with flipper-like hands and shortened limbs. Another example is, there is a cure for cancer but it only works if you are a mouse.
The Humane Society International shares a statistic about how 9 out of 10 candidate medicines that appear safe in animals actually fail when given to humans.
Research informed me that despite all the proof that testing on animals is dangerous and unreliable, the reason it remains in use is because it is the “norm” people have been used to throughout history. Research is time consuming and a lot of work so people stay with what they know which is animal testing.
As you can see, animals are NOT needed to medical testing!
Thankfully, there are alternatives that can be more helpful than animal testing! One example is “organs-on-chips.” These were created by Harvard’s Wyss Institute. They contain state of the art replicas of human organs so people are able to test on these instead.
Another example is human-patient simulators that can bleed, breathe, talk and even die! People are able to test on these instead of animals! According to PETA’s website, 97 percent of medical schools have replaced animals with these. These are just a few examples but they can work much better than animals.
Lastly, what can you do?
First, you can buy cruelty-free products. Here are two links with lists of companies that do not test on animals! I personally am a huge fan of Too Faced! Their mascara “Better Than Sex” is absolutely amazing and on the second website the author describes it as, “one of the best cruelty-free mascaras.” I was crushed when I found out that companies I love such as, CoverGirl, Pantene, and Aveeno test on animals.
http://www.mediapeta.com/peta/PDF/companiesdonttest.pdf
http://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/ultimate-guide-to-cruelty-free-makeup/
If you want to get updates on the fight to end testing on animals, you can like PETA on Facebook or follow them on Twitter (@peta)!
Finally, you can speak up against testing on animals because as Jeremey Bentham once said, “The question is not, can they reason, nor, can they talk. But, can they suffer.” Be the voice for the 100 million plus animals that die a year because if you don’t, who will?
Sources:
http://www.hsi.org/campaigns/end_animal_testing/qa/about.html
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animal-testing-101/
http://www.neavs.org/research/harm-suffering
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-animal-testing/
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-animal-testing/