Animal testing ethics
Killing whales - how cruel?
Check the link below to read about the brutal killing of whales
Animal testing debate (animal research testing): Do animals have feelings? Certainly they have. People who really care about animals are of the belief that animals do have mind, feelings and emotions. But for others with ‘we don’t care approach’ animals are creatures with no feelings, pain or attitudes, just like a non-living thing. Millions of animals are harmed and exploited around the world by cruel human hands. According to the UK Government annual statistics 2007, more than 3.2 million animals are subjected to testing and experimentation and subsequent death in British laboratories alone. The number of animals subjected to experiments has increased steadily in the last few years because of the advent of genetic engineering. Human beings are least bothered about the fact that experiments cause suffering, distress pain and lasting harm on animals.
Animal testing and experimentation
What is animal testing?
Animal testing facts - animal testing statistics: Animals used for testing - More than 8 million animals are bred for testing and experimentation purpose and later destroyed. Animals that are widely used for testing and experimentation include rats, hamsters, mice, gerbils and guinea pigs (majority of testing involve rodents) and various other animals like cats, dogs, rabbits, dogs, cows, monkeys, horses, sheep, fish, pigs, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and reptiles. Almost all species of animals are tested and experimented.
cruel act towards animals
Research on animals
Cruelty to animals
About animal testing - Testing and Experimentation involve various procedures that inflict painful and lethal diseases on animals. These unfortunate creatures are starved, isolated, burned, blinded, radiated, poisoned, and injected mercilessly to test different types of foods, drugs, cleaning products and various other materials. The ethics of animal testing and experimentation has been in question for centuries, but no action has been taken so far to protect the rights of animals. Why the rights of animals are ignored blindly? Shouldn’t they be protected as well? Are they deprived of the right to exist in this earth? Is it not the responsibility of humans to protect animals who are the friendliest beings? Testing and Experimentation on animals is unethical, inhumane and unscientific and must be banned therefore.
Animal rights
Anti animal testing thoughts
It is unethical as well as unscientific to torture and kill animals in the laboratories. Ethically speaking, to intentionally imposing pain on another sentient creature, be they human beings or animals, is nothing but an abuse of power. Torturing animals is one of the leading evil that prevails in the modern society. As a society it is our responsibility to take legal action against those who deliberately inflict pain and death on fellow beings. Human beings however are found to be reluctant to uphold the rights of animals, their friendly companion; no protection is extended to animals that are tortured in animals. It may be true that animal testing and experimentation benefit human beings by helping them make medical advances. However, the ethical and humanitarian justification of animal testing and experimentation will be definitely called into question while considering the human responses to evil practices like slavery and imperialism, which were also useful to their perpetrators. Why should human beings be reluctant to apply the same moral and ethical theories (that made them raise their voice against slavery) to animal testing and experimentation?
Save animals
Animal experimentation facts
Cons of animal testing
Animal testing flawed
From the scientific point of view, testing on animals is a fundamentally flawed and ineffective approach to gain information about human biology and disease. The variations we see in the highly complex biological systems of numerous species of animals reveal that experiments on animals are fat from correct. Such data is a dangerous guide to human condition. Experiments on these innocent beings continue because of entrenched prejudices, scientific prejudice and ethical prejudice. Animals are killed, poisoned and made to live in cages for several years. However experiments on animals are found to be least helping for medical interpretations on human body. Vast physiological variations between species eliminate the possibility of copying animal experimentation results to human beings. Human response to illnesses and drugs are fully different from those of animals.
Stop animal testing
Stop animal cruelty - switch to animal testing alternatives
Non-animal research methods are proved to less expensive, more accurate and less time-consuming, compared to animal experiments. Researchers are however still unwilling to switch to superior technological advances that do not involve animals in the experimentation. Animal experimentation brutally kills animals and makes us consider wrong data that are not relevant for human beings. Some of the scientists in medical field feel that experiments on animals are found on nothing but false premises. They believe that the results of such experiments can’t be applied on human bodies.
No animal testing - Go against animal testing – save animals
Animal experimentation has been proved false in several cases that caused death and deformities in human beings; for example, the Thalidomide Tragedy of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Thalidomide was a drug a product from the German market that was previously safely tested on large number of animals. The drug was therefore marketed as an amazing drug, an effective sedative for pregnant and breastfeeding women. It was believed to have no side effects on babies as well as mothers, based on the successful testing of it done on animals. However to the surprise of the medical world thousands of mothers who used this drug gave birth to babies with serious deformities. This proves the how ineffective and dangerous is animals tested drugs oh human beings. Not only do animals react differently from humans where drugs, experiments and vaccines are concerned, but they also tend to react differently from each other. We ignore these differences and make our experiments on innocent animals. If that be the scenario why should we not permanently ban this brutal game that induces pain, sufferings and death on animals that are helpless even to talk out their plight?
We, human beings are cruel to this extent?
Animal Ethics
Animal Testing should be banned – Respect animal rights
Humans and animals share the same basic senses, desires, needs and emotions. All animals - not just humans - deserve the right not to be tortured and murdered. Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism deals with the ethics of causing pain and death on animals. According to utilitarianism if all pain is evil the pain of animals (even though they can just feel the pain) also should be seriously considered in the moral decision of man. Even though the pain of animals is not much severe compared to the pain felt by man and does not include the pains of anticipation, pain of animals should not be ignored in man’s moral decisions. Bentham’s Principle of Utility recognizes the fundamental role of pain and pleasure in living beings. The Principle also judges actions on the basis of the amount of pleasure or pain that brings. The principle equates the good with the pleasure and evil and pain. Bentham thought that the principle of utility could be applied to our treatment of animals. Even though animals cannot talk or reason, they suffer and undergo pain as human beings do. This suffering should be taken into account in our treatment of animals. This is the moral ground for all laws that cry for the stoppage of cruelty against animals. Bentham argued that animal pain is very similar to human pain and that "the day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been witholden from them but by the hand of tyranny (Bentham, 1789)." Bentham opines that the ability to suffer, not the ability to reason, must be used as the criteria for the way human beings deal with animals. The ‘ability to reason’ should not be used as the basis of how we treat human beings and animals. If the ability to reason was the benchmark for the treatment, babies and disabled people could be considered as mere objects without any feelings. If a human being or animal is able to feel pain, they must be carefully dealt with as all pain is evil.
save animals
Ban animal testing
Stop animal cruelty - protect animals
Laws must ensure the protection of every sensitive being. If we imply utilitarianism in the treatment of animals we must include their pleasure and pain in the calculation as ‘pain and pleasure’ constitute the basis of how we treat living beings. Animals as well as humans owe moral treatment and moral consideration. The suffering and enjoyment of animals does count much. For Bentham, the pleasure or pain of anyone was to count no more or less than the same amount of pleasure and pain of anyone else. Bentham’s point is quite radical in this case. He aims to place our understanding of our relations with animals on a new moral stand. Animals have the basic interest not to suffer (like human beings) and it therefore it is a mistake on the part of human being to inflict pain and suffering on them. Animals should never be excluded from the moral community because they are not able to reason. Animals, on the other hand, should be given more consideration that human beings as they are unable to speak out their pain and suffering. Animals should not be used in ‘circuses’ and similar entertainments where they are made to suffer. The pain and suffering of the animals considerably outweigh the pleasure of the human beings who persecute them for different purposes like eating meat. The advocates of utilitarianism demand a better treatment for animals and want people to give due consideration to the sufferings of animals. This approach forbids killing of animals in any case. Inducing suffering on animals is wrong in all cases. Protecting animals is a responsibility entrusted on human beings as they are intellectually and mentally superior to animals. Testing and Experimentation on animals is unethical, inhumane and unscientific and must be banned therefore.
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