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 sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. ~Mark TwainVivisection is defined as the practice of operating on living animals in order to gain knowledge of pathological or physiological processes. In this paper I hope to convince my readers that this act is not only appalling and inexcusable, but also completely unnecessary. I will briefly discuss the history and uses of vivisection in this country and will discuss why such atrocities are still allowed to occur today. I will point out all of the misconception currently held about animal research and will educate my readers about the true horrors of this practice. Also, I will discuss the many, many scientific downfalls of current animal research and alternatives to vivisection.
The website for the Humane Society of the United States reports that documentation of animal research dates all the way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. This type of research began to increase throughout the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries and by the 18th and 19th centuries the use of animals in research gradually increased from uncommon to mainstream. Even back then vivisection was not without controversy. By the mid 1800's principles for regulating animal research were proposed and soon there was a flood of antivivisection activity throughout the US, Europe and Brittan. Citizen outrage died down shortly after this time and did not resurface until the early 1950's when organizations focusing on the care of laboratory animals began to surface. In 1966 the US congress passed the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act in response to public outrage,