What Exactly Are Animals Tested For?

Animals are tested for medical research and cosmetics, The Humane Society offers eye-opening information on this topic. There are a wide range of items considered "cosmetics" which the Food and Drug Administration define as "articles intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the body's structure or functions." This basically means that animals can be tested on with makeup and even household cleaning items. Animals such as mice, guinea pigs, rabbits are exposed to chemicals either by having them rubbed onto their shaved skin or even dropped in their eyes. They may also be given the lethal dose test which is when they are forced to swallow a chemical to help scientists determine the dose that caused death. Another test is on mice and rats where they are exposed to a chemical during their whole lifetime to see if it causes cancer. Cosmetic products are not required to be tested on animals for safety. Instead of testing on animals companies can use previous knowledge to use safe chemicals.

"Fact Sheet: Cosmetic Testing."Www.humanesociety.org. Web. 28. Apr. 2016.

The Legality Behind It

Animals are subjected to harsh treatments in laboratories this is allowed because many aren't protected under law. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) addresses the standard of care animals receive in testing laboratories yet 95% are excluded such as rats, mice, birds, etc. That means we have a law that basically protects no research animals' rights and is just there for show. The Public Health Service oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which channels infectious diseases and studies the subjects reactions. When the facilities the animals are tested are found indecent there is no follow up inspection. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees the 12,000 research facilities (only 120 inspectors available) and some are never inspected and many go unpenalized. However there are committees to protect the animals such as the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees that are self chosen, but have no power to change things.

Not So Fun Facts

1. Most animals aren't legally protected in laboratories.

2. Most inspectors are not empowered to do anything when violations have occurred.

3. Many labs pass inspections even when providing an indecent environment.

  

Legal testing includes burning, poisoning, starving, forced smoking, mutilating, blinding, electrocuting, drowning, and dissecting without painkillers. These forms of torture are legal and can be performed on animals against their will, these acts cannot go unnoticed and must be stopped. The

Animal Legal Defense Fund provided amazing information to pull from.

"Animal Testing and the Law." Aldf.org. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

Why Animal Experimentation is Unecessary

Animal Experimentation

Today I will look into animal experimentation and why it is unnecessary and has no benefits. I found an excellent website explaining that animal experiments are a "bad science". The fact is animals have a totally different anatomy than humans. Scientists find all type of cures for animals such as a cure for cancer and Alzheimer's disease, but none of this ever can ever be applied to humans because they just aren't the same. These cures are found  by inserting different toxins into the animals or purposely puncturing something to allow the disorder to form and thus allowing them to cure it.  The fact of the matter is these artificially induced symptoms do not compare to the human disorders they need to replicate. They don't take into consideration the origins of where these disorders form such as diets, habits, and environmental influences, among many others. "It is not possible to predict whether a human will react identically or differently based on the results of experiments conducted on animals." This quote CLEARLY explains how animal experiments are unreliable and can't show whether humans can benefit from their sacrifice. These animals are tested against their will and its all for nothing.

Some Statistics on Animal Experimentation

1. "92% of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they are too dangerous or don’t work".

2. “Currently, nine out of ten experimental drugs fail in clinical studies because we cannot accurately predict how they will behave in people based on laboratory and animal studies,”

These statistics prove how animal experimentation is unecessary and provides no information for medical research.

Gericke, Corina, Dr. "Why Animals Experiments Are Not Necessary."Www.aerzte-gegen-tierversuche.de. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

Why I created this blog...

Hey everyone this is my first blog post so it provides some information on what I will be continually discussing . I have created this blog specifically for discussing Animal Rights and how they are experimented on for Medical Research. I am very interested in this topic because I believe animals are not just guinea pigs for experiments, they have just as much rights as us. "Each year, more than 100 million animals...are killed in U.S. laboratories for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing". This statistic is heartbreaking to think that some of our household pets that we consider family are being treated so awfully and even being killed. I hope by looking further into this topic we can find a way to stop this cruelty towards animals. And answer the question, why animals are being tested on and treated poorly when these experiments have done nothing to help disease in humans, but rather harm the animals themselves.

"Experiments on Animals: Overview." Www.peta.org. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.