FREE ESSAY ON ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION

ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION

Animal Experimentation
ANIMAL RIGHTS-- The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in
England in 1824 to promote humane treatment of work animals, such as cattle and horses,
and of household pets. Within a few decades similar organizations existed throughout
Europe. An American society was founded in New York in 1866. Then after, these
organizations were protesting the use of animals in laboratory experiments and the use of
vivisection for teaching. Until the mid-1970s the focus on humane treatment of animals
continued. After that period, animal rights activists enlarged their priorities,
considerably.
It is estimated that 70 million animals are used in research every year in the United
States alone. The trained psychologist must reflect carefully on the limitations of
making comparisons of animal and human behavior. Without analyses, animal studies may
lead to faulty conclusions of animal and human behavior. A mental illness in a rat is
different from that in a human. Just as researchers would rule out harmful
experimentation on human subjects, they should stop experimentation that causes animal
suffering.
The American Psychological Association has established guidelines concerning the use of
animals in psychological research. But for many animal protection activists, the APA
guidelines are not enough. The misuse of research animals occurs despite organizational
guidelines and protective legislation. Psychological researchers unnecessarily repeat
many experiments on animals and that there is little evidence that any human benefits
come from this work. Also, Psychologists and others involved in animal research make few
efforts to find alternative means of gathering data. 
Why should we experiment on animals with products that are not important in medical
research!? Pharmaceutical and other industrial labs will use animals to screen drugs,
cosmetics, and other substances before selling them. Any new product or ingredient is
usually tested on rats, mice, guinea pigs, dogs, or rabbits. The questionable substance
may be applied to a small area of the animal's skin to determine the development of
allergic responses after some applications. In the Draize test, which was developed in
the 1940's, a substance is dropped into rabbits' eyes to check eye damage and how long it
takes to recover. Rabbits are used because their eyes produce no tears, because blinking
will wash away an irritant. This test has been used by cosmetics firms to test the eye
irritability of shampoos and other products.
Some psychologists believe that since psychology is the science of behavior, animal
behavior is just as interesting and important as human behavior. But many experiments,
like systematic brain surgery, for example, cannot be performed on human beings and must
be done on animals if anything at all is to be learned. Animal behavior is simpler than
human behavior.
I believe that animal testing is wrong and should not be used unless the researcher can
strongly prove that his/her evidence from the questionable experiment will help out in
IMPORTANT research. If the researcher is found experimenting on animals, they should
loose their licenses, fined, and thrown in jail! If their evidence would be helpful, and
safe, then they can do their research. Another alternative is to ask humans to do the
experiment. Many people wouldn't mind it. 
Not surprisingly, however, humans don't want to be guinea pigs and scientists have in the
past had little choice but to use animals. If you want to develop drugs to treat human
diseases, then the ideal subjects are, naturally enough, humans. No other animal shares
all our biochemistry so we can never be sure that a drug that works on animals will work
on us. That's why it's good news that more experiments can now be done using human tissue
kept in culture rather than live animals. The opening of Europe's first human tissue
bank, together with this week's announcement that a new company will test drugs without
using any animals are welcome signs of the times. 
Unfortunately, the use of laboratory animals will not end soon. Human tissues are mainly
being used to help basic research. Most laboratory animals are used in toxicology tests
and it will be a long while before we can be sure that tests using human tissue are as
(or more) reliable. It will be even longer before the whole testing principle can be
replaced. 
Nevertheless, the first steps have been taken towards a kinder world. To help it along,
you could carry a donor card. It's a grim thought, but bits of you could be very useful
should you meet a sticky end. 
Bibliography
"Animal Experimentation." Compton's Living Encyclopedia. Compton's Learning Company,
1996.Online. America Online. (7 June 1996).
"Animal Rights." American Home and High School Encyclopedia. L.A.K. publishing, 1991 ed.
vol. 10 pp. 1389-1390.