Animal Testing

Animal Testing: The Fight We are Losing

Since 322 BC, scientists such as Aristotle have been using animals as test subjects, and only recently, we have started to find out the extent of the cruelty endured by these animals. My research for this essay uncovered many atrocities. Twenty-one long-tailed macaques were forced to inhale a variation of smallpox, then they were killed and dissected. Twenty-seven pigs were shot in the hind legs and 30 percent of their blood drained for research. Pigs have been shot, rabbits blown up, and guinea pigs have been injected. So why is it necessary? Animal testing has been going on for centuries, but as a species, humans are obsessed with scientific advances. If we must have test subjects, then isn’t it better to use animals instead of humans?

One question that arises when talking about this topic is, is it necessary to use animals when conducting tests to improve and understand weapons on the battlefield?

"We all want to ensure the safety of soldiers and civilians, but we do not believe that subjecting animals to such cruel and disturbing experiments is the way to achieve this. The level of suffering animals endure in military experiments conducted at Porton Down is completely unacceptable.” –Dr Katy Taylor, Director of Science at Cruelty-Free International, which strives to eradicate the use of animals in cruel research for science.

Her statement reminds us that those who are opposed to animal testing understand that the safety of our serving soldiers is paramount. However, the same question arises, to what extent is cruelty towards test subjects justified?

Only in the past decade are the UK’s Ministry of Defense starting to admit to the ways in which they treat lab animals. For example, pigs have been shot in the hindquarters and 30 percent of their blood is drained to simulate a soldier losing blood from a gun-shot wound. To comprehend the full extent of torture you must imagine how the animals will feel, imagine being shot in the legs, and losing nearly half your blood, the amount of pain you would experience as the bullet penetrates your flesh, tearing it open, then shattering the bone, before it exits from the other side. This image really does send a chill down my back, but imagine hundreds of pigs experiencing this. The horror story doesn’t end here. The Ministry of Defense has also confessed to blowing up rabbits. We see them as pets, but the military only sees them as disposable objects to be blown up and replaced.

Neither can the general public ignore the fact that our hard-earned money is used to pay for this "torture" through taxation. You cannot help but notice the unfortunate irony in the fact that animal testing protesters are funding the one thing they campaign so strongly and passionately about. Furthermore, new evidence from experts is proving that use of animals does not accurately represent how the human body would react to a gun inflicted wound, or the effects of a gas attack. Horrifyingly, new evidence has been uncovered of injury clamps put on the legs of thirty female rabbits, and a weight then was dropped on the rear legs equaling four times their body weight. To put this into perspective, that’s three hundred kilograms being dropped in the legs of an average fully grown male. Bacteria was then inserted into the open wound. The rabbit would be in excruciating agony, which eventually proves fatal to these innocent creatures.

But unfortunately, we must acknowledge the essential side of using animals as test subjects. For example, in 1953, a volunteer exposed himself to a small amount of the toxin, Sarin, which could have been used in biological weapons. He was among a few with the same amount kept in the same conditions. Sadly, the volunteer died some days later after exposure. This 20-year old’s life was cut short, as he was used as a test subject before animal testing began at the Wiltshire facility. Surely this justifies why we use animals for testing, as it is true that human life is more valuable and precious than animal life. Although many will argue that it can never be justified, we cannot deny that millions of people have been saved from horrible diseases and chemicals in warfare. One of the most ground-breaking treatments that was found through animal testing is the treatment for breast cancer. In 1882, it was discovered through animal testing. Another extremely important breakthrough was the use of the artificial heart, which was developed and made through testing on pigs. Yes, many animals would have been killed and used, but the number of people that can live easier lives because of the artificial heart is staggering; all because of animal testing.

If there was an alternative to using animals for the same experiments that needed to be carried out, the test facilities would be using it already; they aren’t. The human body is so complex, and I agree that we must get as close as to the real thing as possible. Although a Petri dish can provide groundbreaking research, it just isn’t close enough to the real human body. One of the many tests conducted is that of the effects of a gas attack on a soldier. There is no way to replicate the true effects this would have on a respiratory system, apart from using an animal. Although this does usually kill the animal, or the animal is eventually killed to stop the effects from the gas hurting it too much, it does provide indispensable results which do save lives. The research done through animal testing gives scientists a better understanding of how weapons would affect a soldier and are then able to develop protection to save their life if the weapon is ever used on them.

Having considered every angle of this emotive and ongoing controversy, I still do not think that animal testing can be justified. Through the evidence gathered and researched, the conclusion that many of the ways that the experiments are undertaken are cruel, and are a murderous act of ‘legal’ animal cruelty. Reflecting on the lists of torture that thousands of animals endure, like having weights dropped on them to shatter every bone in their legs, and pigs being shot, rabbits being blown up, I cannot see why this is necessary in the process of making the safety on the battlefield for our service men better.