Animal Testing

Animal testing has been around for almost three hundred years and animal testing scientists know more about the human body then they did ever before. Vivisection, which is the dissecting of animals for experimental use, is the starting point for animal testing and without out this who knows what scientists would be doing to find out about disease and the human body. Testing on animals that have similar structures to the human body is very important for scientists. Without animal testing cures for diseases would have taking decades to get as far as we have now with our scientific advancements. Testing generations of animals takes only a year or so while testing human generations takes hundreds of years. Others believe that animal testing is a bad thing because of the harm that is being done to these animals. Animal rights activists are the people who have the most one sided to animal testing which is that animal testing should be stopped and another form of testing should be done. Animal testing can sometimes be a good thing because it can help find cures for different diseases or cancers and it can help scientists understand more and more about the human body.

Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments (although some research about animals involves only natural behaviors or pure observation, such as a mouse running a maze or field studies of chimp troops)(en.wikipedia.org). 33 percent of all animal tests is performed to better researchers' knowledge on the subjects of human and animal behavior, development, and biological functions; this is called 'basic' or 'fundamental research'. 30 percent of all animal tests help scientists to understand diseases and enhances them to develop cures and treatments for them; this is called 'targeted' or 'applied research'. 8 percent of all tests are undergone to test the safety of everyday products such as body lotion and deodorant; this is called 'toxicological' or 'other product safety evaluation'. The remaining 28 percent are used for a variety of other vital tests. These already outline many of the positive aspects of experimentation on animals. From this it can be seen that the three main reasons why animals are used in research are to advance scientific understanding, develop solutions to medical dilemmas, and to guarantee the safety of people, animals, and the environment. So far, animal testing has led to:

- The creation or development of antibiotics, insulin, vaccines for polio, vaccines for cervical cancer, organ transplantation, HIV treatments, and heart-bypass surgery

- Treatments and medicines that could save a cancer patient's life, allowing them to continue living the healthy life they had before. 25 years ago, cancer, a life-threatening illness, would inevitably have led to death within a few years.

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