Why I am Against Animal Testing
"The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?"
-Jeremy Bentham
Over 100 million animals suffer each year from animal testing.
Just let that sink in for a minute.
When most people think of cruelty free they think of animal right activists standing outside a rodeo branding people or chanting from cages. This is not me. I do feel strongly about situations where animals are used for the benefit of human amusement/advancement/sport AND treated unfairly and/or provided with poor living conditions and minimal social interaction. I am against the unnecessary hunting of species, especially those that are endangered or dwindling in numbers. I am against the use of animals as test subjects for our products and our medical industry when other methods exist. I am also against the current standards and protocols for the housing and care of the animals used for our meat industry.
When you look at the core of most animal rights conversations people seem to ask "Do we value and animals life over a human's"? For me I know that if I had to choose between my daughter's life or my cat's life I would obviously choose my daughter's life. But most of the time we aren't faced with that sort of decision. Take household laundry detergent - laboratory animals (usually rats,mice, birds which make up 95% of the laboratory animal population) used to test these products on are injected, gassed, force-fed and then eventually killed to test the ingredients that go into everyday household products. They are often kept in very cramped and crowded enclosures with little interaction other than that of their testing.
"In research and testing, animals are subjected to experiments that can include everything from testing new drugs to infecting with diseases, poisoning for toxicity testing, burning skin, causing brain damage, implanting electrodes into the brain, maiming, blinding, and other painful and invasive procedures. It can include protocols that cause severe suffering, such as long-term social isolation, electric shocks, withholding of food and water, or repeated breeding and separating of infants from mothers. In toxicity testing, animals used in chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies receive the test substance daily, seven days a week, for up to two years with no recovery periods. Many, if not most, animals die before the end of the study. With the exception of chimpanzees, animals who survive their use in research and testing can be killed after the study is completed." (https://www.neavs.org/research/harm-suffering).
Did you know that 92% of the drugs that pass animal testing fail human trials? So many methods of alternative testing exists. Growing human and animal cells in a laboratory via the in vitro method has proven to be highly effective. Testing on human tissues that have been donated from biopsies and transplants is also becoming more widely accepted. Computer models and programs even exist based on previous and mathematical data to help us avoid animal testing. It's been proven to be quicker, cheaper and more effective to avoid animal testing all together. So why do we still do it?
Many scientist claim that it is just not possible to make a computer cough or make a test tube have a heart rate. I get that. But after a little bit of digging I realized we are already on an answer for that.
"Harvard’s Wyss Institute has created “organs-on-chips” that contain human cells grown in a state-of-the-art system to mimic the structure and function of human organs and organ systems. The chips can be used instead of animals in disease research, drug testing, and toxicity testing and have been shown to replicate human physiology, diseases, and drug responses more accurately than crude animal experiments do. Some companies, such as the HµRel Corporation, have already turned these chips into products that other researchers can use in place of animals." (https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-animal-testing/)
Now I'm going to copy that link from the above paragraph here just in case you weren't completely amazed by what you just read. That article is really extraordinary if you think about it. It's amazing how far we have come in medical research and advances. I just don't think I want to hear any more excuses.
I will wrap this up to say that I will be posting videos on Cruelty Free products and brands. I will continue researching alternatives to everyday life and it's challenges where we seek out products wrongly tested on animals for our benefit. I am so tired of feeling like people are just the worst. I want my daughter to grow up in a world where love and compassion are the first knee-jerk reactions. It's time we stop being selfish and start asking, "how can we help?"
"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity."
-George Bernard Shaw
Other resources: https://www.neavs.org/alternatives/in-testing
Be kind,
Alisa
-Jeremy Bentham
Over 100 million animals suffer each year from animal testing.
Just let that sink in for a minute.
When most people think of cruelty free they think of animal right activists standing outside a rodeo branding people or chanting from cages. This is not me. I do feel strongly about situations where animals are used for the benefit of human amusement/advancement/sport AND treated unfairly and/or provided with poor living conditions and minimal social interaction. I am against the unnecessary hunting of species, especially those that are endangered or dwindling in numbers. I am against the use of animals as test subjects for our products and our medical industry when other methods exist. I am also against the current standards and protocols for the housing and care of the animals used for our meat industry.
When you look at the core of most animal rights conversations people seem to ask "Do we value and animals life over a human's"? For me I know that if I had to choose between my daughter's life or my cat's life I would obviously choose my daughter's life. But most of the time we aren't faced with that sort of decision. Take household laundry detergent - laboratory animals (usually rats,mice, birds which make up 95% of the laboratory animal population) used to test these products on are injected, gassed, force-fed and then eventually killed to test the ingredients that go into everyday household products. They are often kept in very cramped and crowded enclosures with little interaction other than that of their testing.
"In research and testing, animals are subjected to experiments that can include everything from testing new drugs to infecting with diseases, poisoning for toxicity testing, burning skin, causing brain damage, implanting electrodes into the brain, maiming, blinding, and other painful and invasive procedures. It can include protocols that cause severe suffering, such as long-term social isolation, electric shocks, withholding of food and water, or repeated breeding and separating of infants from mothers. In toxicity testing, animals used in chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies receive the test substance daily, seven days a week, for up to two years with no recovery periods. Many, if not most, animals die before the end of the study. With the exception of chimpanzees, animals who survive their use in research and testing can be killed after the study is completed." (https://www.neavs.org/research/harm-suffering).
Did you know that 92% of the drugs that pass animal testing fail human trials? So many methods of alternative testing exists. Growing human and animal cells in a laboratory via the in vitro method has proven to be highly effective. Testing on human tissues that have been donated from biopsies and transplants is also becoming more widely accepted. Computer models and programs even exist based on previous and mathematical data to help us avoid animal testing. It's been proven to be quicker, cheaper and more effective to avoid animal testing all together. So why do we still do it?
Many scientist claim that it is just not possible to make a computer cough or make a test tube have a heart rate. I get that. But after a little bit of digging I realized we are already on an answer for that.
"Harvard’s Wyss Institute has created “organs-on-chips” that contain human cells grown in a state-of-the-art system to mimic the structure and function of human organs and organ systems. The chips can be used instead of animals in disease research, drug testing, and toxicity testing and have been shown to replicate human physiology, diseases, and drug responses more accurately than crude animal experiments do. Some companies, such as the HµRel Corporation, have already turned these chips into products that other researchers can use in place of animals." (https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-animal-testing/)
Now I'm going to copy that link from the above paragraph here just in case you weren't completely amazed by what you just read. That article is really extraordinary if you think about it. It's amazing how far we have come in medical research and advances. I just don't think I want to hear any more excuses.
I will wrap this up to say that I will be posting videos on Cruelty Free products and brands. I will continue researching alternatives to everyday life and it's challenges where we seek out products wrongly tested on animals for our benefit. I am so tired of feeling like people are just the worst. I want my daughter to grow up in a world where love and compassion are the first knee-jerk reactions. It's time we stop being selfish and start asking, "how can we help?"
"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity."
-George Bernard Shaw
Other resources: https://www.neavs.org/alternatives/in-testing
Be kind,
Alisa
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