Animal testing is used for research and to develop treatments and products but it is a very controversial issue. Testing products on animals is a cruel way to injure or kill one. Scientists and lab workers test things like food products, skin and hair products and drugs to see how an animal would react before they sell the product to the stores, the pharmacy’s and the public. This issue affects everybody that buys the everyday products being tested on. Most animals are euthanized (killed) after one testing. How would you feel knowing that the items you’re purchasing have killed an innocent animal? I think that animal testing should stop.


There are several reasons as to why I am against testing products on animals. Animal testing involves monkeys that are addicted to drugs, have holes drilled into their skulls, sheep and pigs have their skinned burned off, and rats spinal cords are crushed. Small mice grow tumors to about the same size as their own bodies, rats suffer seizures, and kittens are purposely blinded. They cut open pigs and dogs and shove hard plastic tubes down cat’s and ferrets little throats in archaic medical training courses. Doing these things to these poor animals is unnecessary. Many universities and hospitals imprison millions of animals for use.


Not only is animal testing bad for the animal’s health, but the suffering of them may result in weak regulations. What many people don’t know is that ninety-four percent of the testing is used for the safety of cosmetics and products and six percent is for medical research. Many products that aren’t animal tested sometimes have better or more effective results than the ones that are. I have also learned that most of the products or drugs tested on animals are never really approved for use by the Government anyways, so the animal would have been harmfully treated or died for no apparent reason.


Although testing on animals is wrong, it still could be useful in some ways. Scientists say that animals are somewhat similar to humans which is why they most often used for testing and research. The main reason is that it helps researchers find treatments to make the health and medicine better. Many drugs that have cured different diseases were made possible from animal testing. This form of testing has ensured that all kinds of drugs and medicines are safe to use on humans without any trouble or few side affects. This also saves lives because the drugs and medicine improve the quality of human life. But, I still think it is wrong.


I admit that testing on animals makes everything safer but I’m still against it. The government has many agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). All of these agencies require animal testing for vaccines and for toxic chemicals. So although, I feel that I sympathize with the poor animals and what they go through, I understand that for many things, the testing has to take place. In some instances it is absolutely necessary when it comes to protecting our country. But there are also organizations that do not require animal testing, so to minimize the abuse on the animals we should develop alternative methods of testing for these organizations.