Testing drugs on animals. For it or agaist it? Why?

Answer 1

I am for animal testing...for the most part. I think there's some animal testing that's good and necessary and other testing that is completely unnecessary and just downright cruel. I am for it when it comes to medical purposes (finding cures and treatments for various illnesses in humans AND animals). I am not for all the unnecessary testing that is done (cosmetic products, putting shampoos in their eyes, household cleaners, etc.).

Alright, so why I'm for it - I know a lot of people say that animal testing is useless because they react differently to drugs than humans, but the reality is that all the drugs on the market came from animal testing, so it obviously isn't as useless as people think. Animals have provided us with treatments for cancer, AIDS, neurological diseases, rabies, distemper, small pox, anthrax, diabetes, liver and heart disease, genetics, spiral cord injuries, strokes, organ transplants, insulin discovery, polio prevention, and so much more.

Also, I don't think a lot of people realize that drugs are tested on humans after being tested on animals. They start with animals because (sadly) about half of them die in the beginning stages of a drug. Let's say one company tested their product on 100 animals and 50 died and another company tested their product on 100 humans and 50 of them died - which company do you think will take the most heat? The one that tested on humans, of course. Even if those people were willing to be tested on and volunteered for the testing, their families are not going to be happy or keep quiet. It would be in all the major papers, on all the major news stations, and that company is going to have a boatload of lawsuits thrown at them.

Some people also suggest that we test on the criminals sitting in prison on death row. That sounds good and all, but it wouldn't work. First of all, there are people sitting on death row right now that are actually innocent. It's happened a lot - innocent people get wrongly accused and sentenced. We could be testing on and possibly kill an innocent person. Second, there aren't enough criminals to test on to produce meaningful test results. It takes a lot of animals to test products on (again, sad but true) and half of them die in the beginning stages of production. After that first stage, there's still more testing to be done and the possibility for more casualties. They can breed more rats and mice for unlimited test subjects, the same can't be done for criminals. We could clone and/or 'breed' people for the sake of testing, but I guarantee that would cause a bigger uproar than the animal testing. Testing on people (at least in the beginning stages when they're trying to figure out what's lethal and what's not) just isn't a possibility - there's not enough criminals, not enough people that would volunteer to be a test subject, and too many lawsuits would come about from any deaths that would occur during the testing.

And one more thing, a lot of people post videos of animals being tortured and treated cruelly during the testing process, this is not always the case. Most drug companies do everything they can to take care of the animals and treat them as humanely as possible. They also try to use as few animals as possible. Those videos going around are put out by people who are very much against animal testing, so obviously they're only going to show the bad side of it. They have an agenda and want people to be infuriated by the idea of animal testing, so they're not going to show test animals in good environments and being taken care of and treated properly. Those videos do not show how all test animals are treated - a lot of companies take care of the animals in their hands and do everything they can to keep them as comfortable as possible.

So, yeah, those are my feelings on animal testing. I think I covered everything, if not, I'll be back to add more.

Answer 2

For cosmetic reasons I think it is horrible. To cure diseases I'm honestly ok with it. I do believe the animals should be housed better and allowed to be adopted out if they survive when they reach a certain age. I also think that they should have people who know a little bit more about the animals needs around. I belive that some of the tests are unnesessary or can be classified as purposefully cruel, but I do not believe that is the general rule.

So many horrible diseases would still be around if it wasn't for animal testing, such as polio. If we can get rid of AIDS by using animal testing I'm sorry to say that I am all for it. This is coming from an animal lover, but I do believe it's worth it.

And I really think most people who are against animal testing for medical purposes might not feel the same if they were the one faced with Cancer, or Aids, or even polio, or a parent, sibling or even child had it.

Also remember that animals benefit from this also, how do you think the vaccinations for distemper and rabies were created.

Until they find a way that is as or almost as accurate then I agree with using animals for medical testing to cure diseases.

Answer 3

Against it. Also against cosmetic or household products being tested on animals b/c it's cruel, outdated, unnecessary & the death of 100's of mice is not justified by a new shade of lipstick.
Animals should not be used to test drugs, either. Besides the cruelty, this method isn't very reliable. Nearly every week there's a news item about *another* drug that's been pulled from the market b/c it is causing bad reactions in humans. These drugs have been "proven" safe by animal tests. This unreliability goes both ways. If penicillin had been tested on guinea pigs, it wouldn't be used for humans b/c animal testing would have proved it was "poisonous."
There are other ways of testing medicines that are safer, more reliable, often less costly & infinately less cruel-- computers, cultured cells, human volunteers etc. I won't argue for a second that medical research isn't extremely important-- I lost my mom to cancer-- but we should be using better, more reliable methods than torturing bunny rabbits.

Answer 4

I don't really like it but they have to test drugs somehow. Animal testing is a huge part of research. It's necessary too. How would you like if you or a loved one took medication that had serious and debilitating side affects because it was untested? It's happened in the past on too many occasions.

The Nazis used to use political prisoners and minorities for medical research. Should we use convicted criminals? What about human volunteers? I doubt you'd get many.

Answer 5

Of course no one really wants to see animal drug testing. But, so far there is not a computer that truly can duplicate a human. Until they can do that there will be no choice but to test some medicines on animals. I think most testing now is done on small animals like mice, not that it is any better. The only other choice would be testing on humans. I do think there should be regulations that the only testing to be done would be for things people truly need like cancer cures or other disease cures.

Answer 6

For it (conditionally)
I'm for testing on animals as long as it is for a good cause. If it is for new medicines, that's fine. It wouldn't even bother me if it caused harm to the animals. That is how we are where we are today with all the medicine we now have. Countless animals died in order for us to obtain the knowledge we have.
I am against testing on animals if it is for something insignificant. On some makeup containers, it says that it was not tested on animals...which implies they used to do that. There is no sence in making an animal suffer because you want to make a new hair spray or eyeliner.
Medicines that will help cure diseases, okay.
Making animals suffer in order to create a lipstick that lasts longer, no.

Answer 7

COMPLETELY AGAINST.

Has anyone seen the YouTube videos? They are allowed to post videos like that on there - it's horrible.

They will squirt hair spray in rabbits eyes, causing severe trauma, they will force Beagle dogs to smoke - what good will that do, we already know it's bad!

What about the monkey? He gets to be shoved in a small tube to test cologne and the effects on "humans".

What about cats who have mechanical devices shoved into their open heads?

Our bodies work differently, I hate how people do it. THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES! But, people still rely on facts by testing their theories and products on animals.

Here's a few videos to the people who say that animal testing is great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxEpiybtIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZulJrhT4M8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvSObJAzyFQ&feature=related

Answer 8

For it.


By testing on animals, they may find the cure for cancer.

Whats a few rats compared to saving milliions of human lives?

Answer 9

against it because that's not right to test drugs on poor little animals ... how would like it if some came to your house and put you in a little crate and poked needles in you all day and they act like what they are doing is perfectly fine ... so you tell me are you with it or against it????

Answer 10

As long as there is no harm to the animal, i dont see any problem