Animal testing
This theme song to a popular cartoon is a farce dealing with experiments carried out on animals. In the cartoon one mouse is made very smart and wants to take over the world while the other is clearly not as smart. While the cartoon makes jokes, the reality is that mice and other animals re being used for medical tests every day. For some people this testing brings up ethical questions. One of the biggest questions: is it really necessary to take the lives of animals in the name of science and for the betterment of humanity? For animal rights activists, like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the answer is no. PETA pressures labs into halting experiments because they believe that animals are not to be used by humans for "food, clothing, entertainment, or to experiment on" (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 1). Its stance is that any testing is painful, inhumane, and unnecessary when alternatives are available. The PETA website says that "animals, like humans, have interests that cannot be sacrificed or traded away simply because it might benefit others." (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 2-3). Essentially, PETA is of the opinion that animals and humans should have identical rights. In their
Works Cited "Animal Testing by the Cosmetic Industry." (20 March 1999). "Animal Research Saves Human and Animal Lives." Americans for Medical Progress. (20 March 1999). "Animal Research Holds the Key to Saving Human Lives." Americans for Medical Progress. (20 March 1999). Ball, Matt and Anne Green, and Jack Norris. "Veganism as the Path to Animal Liberation." The Animal's Agenda Sep/Oct 1998: 44-45. Botting, Jack H. and Adrian R. Morrison. "Animal Research is Vital to Medicine." Scientific American. 187 February 1997: 83-85. D. E. "Skin Stand-Ins." Scientific American. September 1990: 168. James-Enger, Kelly. "Beyond Animal Testing." Vegetarian Times. October 1998: 254. "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals." (20 March 1999). "21 Things You May Not Know About the Animal Rights Movement." Americans for Medical Progress. (20 March 1999). U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Animal Welfare Report Fiscal Year 1997. press releases PETA puts out pictures of rabbits with open flesh wounds and dogs with rashes on their skins--all in an attempt to disgust people into sympathy for their cause. In actuality the number of lab animals used has been cut in half in the last 25 years (James-Enger 254). Of the animals used, 90 percent are rats and mice (James-Enger 1). Moreover, 11 million animals die each year in animal shelters (Americans for Medical Progress 2) and an astounding 95 percent of the animals that die in America do so from human consumption (James-Enger 254). The reason that animal testing is appropriate is that there are regulations in place to minimize testing and pain, the alternatives are insufficient for now, and most importantly the information obtained from experimentation is irreplaceable. While animal rights groups such as PETA advocate abolishing all animal testing that inflicts pain on animals, proponents of testing cite laws and regulations which minimize pain and discomfort. PETA's position is based on the belief that "humans are not superior to animals (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)." The vice president of the Humans Society of the United States (HSUS), an animal rights group that is nearly as extreme as PETA, has been quoted as saying "the life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration (Americans for Medical Progress 2). If, as PETA and HSUS say, animal and human life is equal, then putting an animal through any pain is immoral. However, there are laws in place to minimize discomfort and inhumane treatment. The laws limit the amount of distress and pain an animal is subjected to. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the body that governs
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Approximate Word count = 1802
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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