Animal Testing
Should humans continue to test on animals?
What is animal testing?
What types of animals are used and harmed?
FACTS ( Reasons to Take a Stand)
- Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in US labs every year.
- Internationally, animal tests are used for everything from drugs to cosmetics. The vast majority of medical treatments you have used were, at one point, tested on animals.
- When used in cosmetic tests, mice, rats, rabbits, and guinea pigs are often subjected to skin and eye irritation tests where chemicals are rubbed on shaved skin or dripped into the eyes without any pain relief.
- No experiment is illegal, no matter how cruel, irrelevant to human health, redundant, or painful.
- Ninety five percent of animals used for experiments are excluded from the only federal law offering any sort of protection.
Why People Should Be Against Animal Testing:
Statements Supporting Animal Experiments - Arguments Against Them
1. “If we didn’t use animals, we’d have to test new drugs on people.”
The fact is that we already do test new drugs on people. No matter how many animal tests are undertaken, someone will always be the first human to be tested on.Because animal tests are so unreliable, they make those human trials all the more risky. What makes a human more special than an animal to be treated so unfairly and painfully?
2. “Don’t medical students have to dissect animals?”
Nearly 95% of U.S. medical schools including Yale, Harvard and Stanford do 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. Today, one can even become a board-certified surgeon without harming any animals. So the fact that we dissect animals in classrooms is not necessary it is merely just a curious experiment for marks.
3. “Animals are here for humans to use. If we have to sacrifice 1,000 or 100,000 animals in the hope of benefiting one child, it’s worth it.”
If experimenting on one intellectually-disabled person could benefit 1,000 children, would we do it? Of course not! Ethics dictate that the value of each life in and of itself cannot be superseded by its potential value to anyone else.
The Catholic Church
The Church of England : Lambeth Conference, 1998
“The fact that animals may be used in scientific procedures for the benefit of people shows that we believe that human beings have more value than animals. But the fact that we minimise the pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm that animals may have to undergo shows that we regard them as having intrinsic value.”
Roman Catholic Church : The Catechism 2415
Animals are God's creatures... men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.
Methodist Church:
The Earth is the Lord’s. We share creation with all other creatures. Christians serve as stewards under God. We condemn needless or unjustifiable testing on animals. Experiments on animals to assess the effect of cosmetics is wrong.
Society of Friends
“We do not own the world, and its riches are not ours to dispose of at will. Show a loving consideration for all creatures and seek to maintain the beauty and variety of the world. Work to ensure that our increasing power over Nature is used responsibly, with reverence for life.”
Quaker Advices and Queries 42