Controversial Issue - Animal Testing

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate May 2001

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Not the Best Thing to Do Screams and the smell of burnt hair fill the room. What is this place? A lab that takes part in animal testing. Animal testing is an extensive process that can take several years to complete. It also costs considerable amounts of money. All of the animals that are not killed during testing are killed soon after testing because they have no more use and cannot function correctly. Some people think that animal testing is very helpful, but the truth is, it kills many innocent animals and wastes a lot of the nation's money.

Animal testing has quite a history that is not too impressive. Animals began to be tested because of a disaster that happened to people when an untested drug came into the market. Many people became seriously ill, suffering form serious conditions, and several died. Now, "More than 50 million animals are tested each year"� (Spisak 1).

The fifty million animals include dogs, cats, mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, and primates. Very rarely are reptiles used because they are cold-blooded and they have different characteristics than humans. "More than 15 billion tax dollars are spent on animal experimenting each year"� (Spisak 1).

Fifteen billion dollars goes toward animal testing, when most people think that the money goes towards recovering the roads all over the nation. Those who do know that animal research and experimentation has barely helped develop cures; they don't know how much pain and suffering occurred behind the screen.

What exactly do the majority of the people in America know about animal testing? They know that animals are used in scientific studies and that's about it. The argument most commonly used is, "At least humans aren't being tested"� (qtd. In James-Enger). That is true, humans should not be tested. If...