Pain relievers, medications for blood pressure, surgical procedures, insulin, psychoactive drugs, pacemakers, nutrition supplements, organ transplants, treatments for shock trauma and blood diseases are all have been developed and tested in live animals before being used in humans. The biggest companies around the world all uses animal testing to test substances that can cause pain and suffering for them even though it is not considered ethical anywhere without a consequence. There are various reasons why it is not considered ethical or safe.
First of all, it violates animal rights. Animals get infected with diseases that they could possibly would not on normal terms, tiny animals like mice grows tumors as big as their bodies as a consequence, kittens get purposely blinded, rats get and suffer seizures. Experiments sometimes even conduct repeated surgeries on them, implant wires in their brains, crush their spines, and much more cruel things.
Secondly, there is no consent given. For humans, before they participate in any kind of research the first step is to get informed consent. This means that they have to willingly sign a form which states that they agree to the terms and conditions of the experiment and are giving full consent to participate in the research. However, when it comes to animals even if the experiment is life threatening, there is no informed consent. That is obviously because of the fact that they don’t possess the same will as humans, but so does mentally challenged people. Although no one would consider to do an experiment on them because that would mean they are exploiting them, yet they do it on animals.
We are not 70kg mice. The test results of animals and humans will always differ. Humans and animals are not anatomically similar. For example, the “thalidomide” disaster that occurred in the 1950’s is an evidence as a sleeping pill was released to the public which caused 10,000 babies to born deformed even though there was no deformities were observed during animal testing.
Lastly, there are many alternatives to animal testing. There are already invented human skin systems which can be used for chemical reactions. There is even an invention that human cells have been used for innovative little devices called “organs-on-chips” which can accurately mimic the lung, kidney, heart, and gut.
In the end, animal testing is nothing but cruelty. It is violating rights, it is not accurate and puts many life’s in danger while having many alternatives.