Animal Testing Is Wrong, Plain And Simple
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I am against animal testing as I’m sure many vegans are. It’s in the definition of vegan, after all:
vegan: (noun) person who seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.
I have many compelling reasons to avoid products tested on animals. And I have many compelling reasons to encourage the abolition of all animal testing. My main reason, however, is that animal testing is unethical. It’s wrong.
Just like it’s wrong to experiment on children, people of color, disabled people or any human being without their consent, it’s also wrong to experiment on animals.
As Mark Twain wrote:
“I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further.”
Not everyone agrees. Orac, a pseudonym for someone who claims to be a surgeon/scientist, has a blog. In it, he says:
“One of the greatest threats to the preclinical research necessary for science-based medicine today is animal rights activism.”
He, like many pro-violence and anti-animal people, mischaracterizes the animal rights arguments against vivisection. He calls our non-violence, pro-peace, and pro-animal position a “threat.” He claims our arguments are these:
- Animal research doesn’t teach us anything of value or even misleads us (i.e., it is bad science).
- Animal research does not predict human physiology or response to disease, or animals are “just too different from humans to give reliable results” (i.e., it is bad science).
- There are better ways of getting the information that do not use animals (i.e., there is better science available than using animals.)
And then he sets off on rejecting those arguments. He tries, but he just can’t do a great job.
- He must concede, though he may not, that animal testing has led us down the wrong path in the past and will likely continue to produce misleading or wrong information that harms humans.
- He must concede, though he may not, that animal testing is not always reliable and that animal species have significant differences, none of which satisfactorily justify animal testing.
- He must concede, though he may not, that there are better, in the sense of good, not necessarily in the sense of productive, ways of getting information that do not use animals, some of which are also more productive.
The thing is, those aren’t the essential criticisms of animal testing. The essential criticism, as stated above, is that animal testing is wrong.
For more information, please visit these websites:
- The Truth About Vivisection
- National Anti-Vivisection Society
- American Anti-Vivisection Society
- New England Anti-Vivisection Society
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UPDATE: Here are more resources for information:
“Vivisection in your area
State by state directory containing many (not all) facility reports for research labs listing animals killed, species of animals used, addresses, and more.
Vivisection Breeder’s List
No Compromise Magazine’s lab animal breeder list from 2001. Contains addresses not found in Flashpoint or Final Nail dot com.
Final Nail : The Website
Activist directory of fur farms, trapping suppliers, slaughterhouses, and lab animal breeders.
Primate Labs Database
Nearly exhaustive list of primate labs and primate vivisectors, for activists.”
Source: Voice of the Voiceless
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Reminder, please read the discussion policy before leaving a comment here. For example, “No pro-meat, pro-dairy, pro-eggs, pro-hunting, or anti-animal discussion.” This is a safe space for vegans.
Thanks for the post. I completely agree. Even if animal tests do benefit humans (which they really don’t), I’d be against them.
As the band Vegan Reich said, “Animal experiments do not save human lies, and even if they did it wouldn’t make an ounce of difference cause we’ve no right to decide who’s to live and who’s to die.”
For scientific reading, check out the book Sacred Cows and Golden Geese. It is written by scientists who are now speaking out against animal testing and show how it has actually harmed humans. Very interesting book.
Billy’s last blog post..Ricochet Sugar-Free Mints
You’re against diaries?
(You’ll want to edit your last paragraph. Unless, of course, journaling actually does offend you.)
Thanks for catching the typo. It’s fixed now.
Your website is soo true and really helpful! I am doing a paper on how wrong animal testing is and your website helped me soooooo much! Thanks again!!!
Taylor
That’s great, Taylor!
I hope your paper turns out well. And I hope you get a good grade, too
it makes me so sad just thinking about animal testing its not right they did nothing wrong they just lved there lives like evryone else im doing a speech on how animal testing is wrong and this website gave me a lot ideas on wat i can say
thanx
Hi, I Agree. Animal Testing, is DISGUSTING.
I have been Vegan for almost 3 months now, and although I’m only young, I think it’s the best decision I’ve made so far in life. Animals DO NOT deserve to be treat like this as they have absolutely no say in it whatsoever. And what makes me more sick is that they actually breed animals for testing, etc. Do they not hurt enough animals? Apparantley not, I mean, obviously they just keep needing more and more, just for the fun of it.
They breed them to create deformities, disease, etc. And then they patent that, too, so they can make money off doing science (not just from the end result of science).
The whole system is sick. It’s all based on the premise that animal lives are completely expendable for any frivolous human whim.
I’m a fictional primate in a real American animal testing facility in Beijing, China, where I blog about my dreams and nightmares there at the blog “Sweatshop Monkey.”
The bad news for good humans opposed to fighting animal testing in the west is that the same companies are expanding their operations to places like China, where humans have no rights to protest against this kind of barbaric cruelty. Shamelessly, these companies brag about the lack of human rights here in their sales pitches to clients and investors.
This is a worldwide phenomenon that is growing rapidly (in terms of scale and investment), and we need some kind of new creative solutions to reverse this trend.
Humanity, when will you wake from your slumber?
Bless all of you eccentric vegans for anything you can do to stop the suffering of innocents!
Eccentric Vegan, for you to say, children, people of color, and disabled people displays utter ignorance. Your statement makes it seem as though people of color are of lesser value or something. You should have said “PEOPLE.” Not “people of color”
Veronica,
I understand your point and I understand that many people dislike comparisons between any group of non privileged humans to animals. I don’t share that perspective, but I can understand the critique.
My statement was
“Just like it’s wrong to experiment on children, people of color, disabled people or any human being without their consent, it’s also wrong to experiment on animals.”
which implies equality to ALL humans.
The reason for using the examples of children, POC, and people with disabilities is because historically they have been used for scientific tests just like animals are currently used. It was wrong then and it’s wrong now.
I to agree that animal testing is wrong and cruel. There is no reason for this abuse of animals because humans and animals have different things in their body and what may work on animals may not work on humans. So people should stop testing on animals and find something else to test on like rapest or something . I agree that everyone should go VEGAN to becuase it saves usfrom losing our population of animals and from animals getting tested on .
Animal testing is cruel and unnesecary chech out http://www.peta.org/actioncenter/testing.asp its PETA’s website it s against animal testing and PETA now owns KFC, KFC used to torture chickens but its now humane-ish i mean i dont eat there (dont eat meat) but its better i guess
i agree that animal testing is WRONG
i heard they rub lipstick in bunnys eyes
heyy . i’m doing a essay for English at school and i have found your website really helpful. Before i researched on animal testing i knew nothing about it; how they torture the animals and kill them for our benefit. After reading a few articles like yours i have decided to become a vegan. I’m strongly against how people can actually treat animals like that without feeling the tiniest bit guilty about it. I was also really at how many products i use at home were created with animal testing. I think that companies should write on their products if they use animal testing, as i feel really guilty about using the tainted products without knowing.
animal testing is so wrong it is so rediculous evey day i think about the aimals out there that are in pain and hurt just think if you where one of those animals locked up in a cage or hurt or in pain all for something stupid aimal have done nothing to be treted like this what bothers me also is when i see aniomal wondering the streets no food or no home because there owner dump them on the side of the street it is pathetic and people need to get a clue what there doing to aimal and nock iot off it is rediculous
I am writing an Essay on how wrong animal testing is and this website helped alot!
~ Recent blog post: Vegan Bites: From Pirates To Support Groups ~
i think its wrong not only because i love animals i just cant stand it cuz it might not work and it was a waste of time for the animal the animals are scared as well as us….don’t u think?
yes i do think tht animal testing is wrong and i am dead serious IT NEEDS TO STOP AND PPLZ NEEDZ TO PUT A PETITION ON IT and how would you feel if you was tested for beauty produts…
and most the time the animal’s die….
I mean how do you think theyy feel???
STOP ANIMAL TESTING!!!
thank you for rading myy respond..
Animal Testing Is Simply Wrong!
Do you think animal testing is right? Well imagine if you were an animal, how would you like it if you were deprived from your rights and was used for a gruesome, experimental tests everyday… well that is if you survived the first tests performed on you!
The definition of animal testing is a research done on animals done to prevent harm to humans. The most common way researchers perform these tests is by shoving tubes with harmful chemical substances down their throats, into their rectums, vaginas or into their eyes.
Another Test done is the draize test. There are two types of draize test. One is performed on the skin and the other in the eyes. This test causes a rabbit to go blind every seventy-two hours. Another type of animal testing is toxicology. This test involves pharmaceutical drugs and they are used on animals to ensure various substances and chemicals in medicines. Five thousand animals are used for a single chemical alone.
There are other ways to test besides animals. The alternative ways are Computer modeling, improved statistical design and synthetic skin called corrositex. These three alternatives researchers have come up with to prevent such harm to these animals.
Ninety-four percent of animal testing is done to determine the safety of our everyday products while only six percent is actual research.
The U.S department of agriculture reported in 2006 an estimated 42,000 animals (not including rats, mice, birds, and non-human primates), were used in non-painful experiments. While 67,000 were used in procedures in which pain and distress was involved and was relieved by anesthesia, while another 840,000 were used in experiments were the pain could not be relieved and therefore died.
As I was reading an article I came across companies who use animal testing to run their research. Below is a list of only a few companies who test on animals for baby care products, cosmetics, dog food ECT… Oh wait and even CANDY. Mars candy brand is among the worst for animal treatment! So what exactly is put in candy? I mean if it’s enough to kill animals!! Why don’t researchers use natural products? I mean people have made remedies, foods and cleaning products back in the day and didn’t die. These days we have innocent animals that die just so our lazy society can become more advanced …I mean common if animals and humans are dying whose going to be left to use these toxic-killing products!!
In order to study head trauma researchers strap an animals head to a table then deliver gruesome blows to the head causing severe brain damage. Animals eyes are sewn together to show the difference of protein eye levels. Even the U.S army is involved with these tests, for example they cut dogs from their knees and leave large flaps in order to study recovery rate.
Animal Testing costs around $136 billion annually! That’s $300 per taxpayer. Animal testing is a misleading method of scientific investigation because it has so many flaws. It is a waste of money and resources.
Humans and animals are different in many ways, I mean I don’t know about you but I don’t have the same DNA as a rat or dog. So why do so many animals die everyday if the tests done on them may have different results on us. So Many drugs are put on the market that were supposed to be good for humans varying on animal results and later turned out to be harmful to our immune system sometimes even deadly. More than 100,000 people have died from toxic reactions or medical overdoses, because they were not predicted on animals. About sixty-one percent of drugs that pass animal tests end up harming or killing humans.
Around half of the animal tests are done from cosmetic companies. Some animals don’t die from the tests performed but it’s the fact that they suffer from hunger, thirst, isolation and depression that also causes the animals to die.
So imagine it was you in that cold lab, hungry alone and scared. You wouldn’t want that would you? So why should innocent animals be held up to that responsibility just because they don’t have a voice to step up to the human society and say no more I Quit!
So help stop animal testing once and for all.
I totally agree with your article.
Like Taylor, I am also doing an article about how wrong animal testing is. Thanks a lot[=
thx i HATE animal testing! ><
its not rite!
i love this article i can read it ove rand over again
♥
i hate animal testing its just not right to do! i feel so bad for the poor innocent animals used for testing.
Animals have rights. We’re not suppose to beat them or tortue them, so why do we run tests on them? Is it not the same thing? It’s crule and mean, and unjustice.
Animal testing is the meanest thing in the world. Animals have a right to live just like anything else. I honestly would kill anyone who tryed to hurt an animal in front of my eyes. Animal testing is wrong. Thats all there is to it. =[
i think that aanimal testing is wrong
Animal testing is cruel. If you need to see for yourself do video searches and see. The fact that we act like we are the ‘kings’ or rulers of this world just sickens me. Even if we do think on possibly a higher level than animals there is no reason for us to bring harm to them. What gives us the right to breed and use animals in crazy inhumane experiments whether they benefit humans or not. But instead of just sitting here and typing about how wrong and bad you guys think it is, why don’t you people get up and do something about it. Nothing has happened because all we do is sit here and feel guilty about it. Get up and show the people what hot bad it is!
heretostay,
What makes you think commenters aren’t doing something?
Most or all at the very least boycott products tested on animals.
Most or all educate others in the form of private conversations, demonstrations, blogging, etc.
A small few might rescue lab animals.
It may seem like it’s taking a long time, but the tide is turning. A recent Gallup Poll found that 38% of Americans think animal testing is wrong. That’s a significant percentage. And it’s an improvement from another poll in 2001.
(source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/107380/Cultural-Tolerance-Divorce-Grows-70.aspx )
thanks it good to know at least it’s increasing.
like all those other people i am doing a debate on animal testing… and this wbsite has helped me out SOOOO much so thank you! thank you! thank you!
from alicia
I luv this article! I HATE, I REPEAT HATE ANIMAL TESTING!!!! IT IS SO CRUEL TO ANIMALS! i wish people will learn one day that animals are living creatures too!
Thanks to all the supporters! im sure the animals will apreciate your comments! TTFN (Taa Taa For Now)
Inside British laboratories. Loads of animals are being experimented on. Every 10.5 seconds, one animal will die. Cats, dogs, rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and other animals are used to test products. They test animals to study human disease and in the development of new drugs. They used a warfare experiments. Animals are not laboratory tools. There are sentient creatures capable of expensing pain, fear, loneliness, and sadness. They should have freedom to express natural instincts and instincts and to deliberately inflict physical plain in the name of science is unacceptable. All the more because the experimenting on animals are bad in the first place. They don’t produce information that can be reliably applied to people. Sciences us animals for make up, shampoo, conditioner and other things too. People think animal testing is ok because it helps people get better and they say we have a lot of stuff from them. People say if animals were not around we would not have lots of things from them. They also say it helps core cancer and other dieses what are harmful. Some people are against the idea of animal testing because they died after the experiments or they live. They also say that some of the stuff the animals are tested on is not very important like make up the animal is suffering because we want make up to look nice when we go out and they also say that we don’t know how much the animals suffer because of us. Like people say “animals are not human” so why do we make them suffer.
NCI also believes we have lost cures for cancer because they were ineffective in mice. Cigarette smoke is safe to ingest, according to animal studies. Conversely, of 20 compounds known not to cause cancer in humans, 19 do cause cancer in rodents. Seven hundred drugs to treat strokes.
• Animal testing can be misleading. An animal’s response to a drug can be different to a human’s.
• Successful alternatives include test tube studies on human tissue cultures, statistics and computer models.
• The stress that animals endure in labs can affect experiments, making the results meaningless.
Dr Simon Festing, head of RDS, said: “It shows the strength and depth of support for humane animal research in this country. The statement says that scientists should be able to get the benefits that animal testing offer, but that they should try to make sure the animals aren’t suffering.
I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t …. The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me suffication justification of the enmity without looking further” this by mark twain
this is a sad day as soon as i saw the numberds i was upset and that is the way it is animals are dieing every day every second we need to help them and stop mthis horrible thing.
Animal testing is very wrong
animal testing is like so rng u wuld think they would not want to hurt these animals . I went to being a vegan because when u eat meat u killed an animal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
poor animals they have lives to !!!!!!!!!!!!
i think that it is wrong because we are taking inocent lives in the animal world and they can be our loving little house pets if people diddn’t kill them for their own stupidity.
i think that animal testing is wrong! you wouldnt let someone test on you even if it was just for to find a cure. i think that you should just leave all animals alone and just stop testing on them!
POOR BUNNIES!!!!!!!!
omj animal testing makes me want to cry. I feelso so so so so so so so so sorry for those poor creatures, and something should be dona about it!
i completely agree thtat animal testing is cruel and inhuman. ANIMALS ARE PEOPLE TO!!!
i think animal testing is for people who are crazy it is so wrong why would someone test on an animal you could kill the poor inocent soul IT IS WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you a vegii or a vegan or neither my friend shannon just dropped her keyboard i am at school posting this i am turning vegii after seeing this syt it is amazing how many animals get killed omg
hi i agree that animal testing is cruel im doing my junior paper on why cruelty to animals is wrong and this site helps me prove my point i wish that everyone would step inside a animals life and see thaey are just lie everyone else just not marrage voting and all the drama in the prices they didnt do anything wrong although im only 16 i understand the value of life and abusing animals isnt part of it i think abusers should be punished just as bad as the cute and harmless andimals that god created we are equal through his eyes or else he never would have made use we were put on earth for a purpose and some dont use theirs very well thank you for haveing this web site i will log on more often ut till then bye and be nice to animals
without animals we wouldn’t be here! i love animals and there my friends. BE NICE TO MY FRIENDS!!!
Yess, very true.
Everyone whos for animal testing…
WE SHOULD TEST ON YOU GUYS >:)
hi its me again im finishing up my junior paper and i just looked up images of testing it made me cry and reakky angry i think we should test the scientists to show how the animals feel its wrong and cruel why would anyone want to be mean if anyone of you are mean you shouldnt be on this site cuz you are a discrace to the world and you dont deserve to have this privalage
hi yea animal testing is cruel and nasty
i think that animals have rights like we do
i am a veggii i dont eat any meat
i love animals and i will never hurt them
i think that animals that are being tested on should be free thay don’t have eney saying in this why should animals sufer for humanaty
I am doing an essay for english about why animal testing is bad and that it should be banned worldwide. I have come up with 5 different reasons backing up my thesis. 1)animal testing costs a lot to perform 2)drugs that pass tests can end up killing humans anyways 3)animals and humans are very different so they will react different to medication/tests 4)animals are torchured because of/while conducting the tests 5)there are alternatives to animal testing that don’t involve animals. Your ideas helped me learn even more and I loved the quote from Mark Twain. So thanks for that! < (P.S. It’s a fish)
ANIMAL TESTING IS WRONG!!!!!!!!!
I hate animal testing its cruel and wrong I just want to thro up think about it…=[
Animal testing is so wrong im writing a paper on animal testing write now for my senior paper and this is a really big issue across the world thanx for this usefull information,it has truly helped me alot.=]
animal testing is wrong it makes me so sick to know that people are torturing them
I have to do a project on animal testing and when i heard that animal testing was my topic i got right to the research some of the things that i have seen the past couple days i have been working on this project….its has put me to tears when i see the pics of the animals that are being tested and even the videos….i meen who does this to animals i meen these animals should have a home where they can be loved well i am totally against this all
Im Doing a debate on it at the moment and you have all really helped me. I love how passionate you guys are.Im 13 and find that rather than looking up to MADONNA Im looking up to you all. Every ones opinion is valid and I mean you can get protein from other foods. Animal testing is wrong I mean whats the point anyway we have different immune systems to animals its a waste of time. And valuable innocent lives!!!
Come everybody lets be vegan!
~ Recent blog post: Euthanasia: Dogs And Pigs ~
thank you so much this helped me alot. i need to write an essay and i did it on animal test and how it is wrong
thanks again
jessie
Thank you
I’m writing a persuasive essay on animal
rights (i’m for the animals ofcourse) and the two view points helped a BUNCH.I chose this topic because i myself am a vegetarian
soon to be vegan. thanks again! -april
I totally agree. It digusts me how people treat animals this way. I mean, if you think about it, humans are total hypocrites. Humans probably wouldn’t want to be treated this way either. Just because they think they’re more “valuable” doesn’t mean that the subordinate creature can be tortured and treated this way. People are much smarter and useful than animals, i agree, but it doesn’t give them the right to decide who lives and who dies. Though I do need help. If we ban animal testing than what DO we test our medicines on? Is there anything else that could help us figure out if a medicine works?
Tesa, Here are some alternatives:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternatives_to_animal_testing
and http://caat.jhsph.edu/
I deffinenly agree on every word said. I am also against animal testing.
I am doing a report on animal testing and am very thankful that this site was made it is helping me tremendously
thanx
I am doing the dreaded graduation project this year on saving animals from abuse, testing, and euthanasia. Do you have any tips, or ideas about a product to do that would be inexpensive but affective, I want to find a way to save an animal from a shelter or something but i have enough dogs and my parents will not let me have another one, I have to have something to show off to the judges along with the volunteer hours. I plan on volunteering at a local vets office and learning about the pros and cons of euthanasia and I really need an idea for the product. if you could help me it would be greatly appreciated…
Thanks,
Ali of NC
thank u so much it’s good to know that im not alone on this one one,i mean animals r like us ,u wouldn’t want some one to take and experiment on u so y do it to them,they want to rome free on this land like we do,and this is their home ,so y take it away,so animal testing is a no go ,and im so glade u think so too,,god bless u……………,and keep incouraging others to STOP ANIMAL TESTING!!!!
thanx,DeNajae’
i think that animal testing should not been done they are different from us in so many ways and there might be something thats shows good and postiive on an animal and then when a human gets it, it could kill them and i think that people who are in jail and that have life in there should be the one tested on becasue they aint getting out they will be in their until they die and plus we will be testing it on a human which thats what we are tryin to see if its good for!!!
Thanks for all the help! have to do a debate about this & your so right animal testing is wrong!
My name is Taylor and i go to clark school of math science and tec. i am in the 7th grade and i just wanted to say that i am doing a report on this and your web site helped out alot it is steller:)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I realize that you guys are “all for the animals” and that’s great and all but it’s just not productive. Animals live and die just like people. Animals can’t talk or defend themselves intellectually for a reason. If they were meant to have certain rights they would. Now I’m not saying that all animals should be abused and tortured but animal testing the only plausible and effective way to further our knowledge and possibly progress into the future of better medicine. If you had a grandma who had a deadly disease and died from it and you found out that if they had tried a few tests on monkkeys or dogs it could create a cure for her. Wouldn’t you take the sacrifice of a few animals for another human being. We are the dominant species and if we’re gonna stay that way there are going to be sacrifices. Animal testing is a necessary evil that, until there is an alternate and equally effective way, must be used to the fullest.
~Ray~
Ray, it looks like we agree that animals should not be abused and tortured.
However, it’s not “just a few animals” that are harmed by experimentation, it’s MILLIONS. And the benefits to humans are few and far between. Mostly, animal testing is simply an old-fashioned custom, not real science.
I love how you have an obviously contrversial website and yet you can still decide who makes comments. Isn’t it great to win a debate when you get to make the rules. It truely is sad that you can’t stand to be wrong. This comment probably won’t get on here and if it does it’s only because I called you out on it.
~Ray~
Animals do have a voice. They scream when in pain. For example, dogs whimper and yelp when feeling injured or in feeling pain. Cats have claws which they use for protection. So, in a way, animals use their voices all the time. We just need to stop being ignorant and just listen.
im against animal testing i think it is wrong humans should feel the animals pain
animal testing is wrong plain and simple
!!
Wow, why do people even do this! It’s so wrong it makes me mad! I’m doing a persuasive essay for my class to persuade people how animal testing is SO wrong and must be banned.
THE WORLD IS GOIN MENTAL
KILLING ANIMALS FOR MAKE UP NO BLOODY WAY
Animal testing is one of the many ways man gloats to the rest of the world about his so-called advanced intelligence and self-proclaimed superiority.
wat sean said
Keza´s last blog ..In Defense Of James Cameron And Avatar (Sort Of)
I think that animal testing is wrong. animals aren’t the same as humans; they look different and have different skin. if a product is tested on animals, it doesnt mean that they are safe to test on humans. however, animals do have feelings, they are hurt like humans are. Humans are the most cruel things in the world. this is true. they are top of the food chain and we should be ashamed.
really horrible, animal testing is.
I agree
It is WRONG! to experement on animals, anyone who does it is sickk!!!