Animal testing is
an extremely controversial topic nowadays. In my opinion it is vital to
understand the whole situation and that is why I am writing this article.
Everybody should be conscious of that problem.
Disadvantages
concerning this issue are countless. The most important fact is that animals
often suffer and die because of tests. Here are some facts about that:
One of records
shows that every year more than 87,000 animals are used for testing causes. As
a result, only in 2012 about 55,000 mice and 9000 rats were killed or
euthanized.
A secret film from Wickham Labs:
It is a common knowledge that animal testing is
expensive, mostly because scientists have to keep pets for several months.
Breeding and creating appropriate living conditions are
not cheap. Moreover, tests require using certain species of animals - so at
this point additional costs should be counted. But still the real cost is not
the one that testers pay for their researches, the real one concerns animals’ lives. Throughout stages of experiments they are
usually bred in captivity.
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| https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/why-we-do-it/what-animal-testing |
What happens
after tests?
It is prevailing
that an animal might have tissues, or even organs, removed for analysis after a
treatment. To make matters worse, if surgical procedures are applied an animal
may be euthanized after an experiment.
Some of them are
euthanized with the usage of a gas which they inhale in special chambers. The
result is quick - it causes a rapid death. An example of a gas which is used in
that process is called carbon monoxide.
As I mentioned,
some animals are bred in captivity. They cannot be sent into the wilderness
just like that. While some people argue why this is not used in practice, the
answer seems to be simple - it would not be a human thing to do, as animals
would not be able to survive in natural habitat on their own.
 |
| https://netivist.org/debate/is-animal-testing-necessary |
On the other
hand, however, maybe testing is not that bad?
Surely, it is
very effective and safe for humans. These days people are struggling with many
illnesses for which medicine lacks appropriate
drugs. If we want to live life in a better way, we need to accept that. In my opinion even if people are
disgusted with animal testing when
their relatives fell ill, they would use a drug
that was tested on animals instead of doing nothing.
What kind of illnesses can we cure nowadays because of animal testing?
- Skin irritation
- Eye irritancy
- Mutagencity and Carcinogencity
- Toxicokinecits and Adme
- Metabolic Toxicity
Thanks
to this method, we can
protect ourselves against diseases. A lot of products which we use
daily contain formulas that are produced on the
animal-testing base. Nonetheless, we keep on buying them for one simple reason
- they can help us.
I would like to
hear your opinion:
- What do you think about animal testing?
- Would you buy a product non-tested on animals even if it was more expensive than the tested one?
- What are the alternatives for animal testing?
Sources:
Comments
Of course I would buy non-tested product even though it would be more expensive. Usually I don't care about price.
We have a huge amount of alternative ways to test products. I think there would be some people who could agree to test products for money. People would do everything for money. Of course we also have a lot of labs, chemical methods and I'm sure testing on animals isn't necessary.
I heard of some skin scientists invented. It's like normal human skin but made in vitro. Of course, it's very expensive. And I have never understood how people can say that something is not dangerous for people of even works for us if it was tested on rabbits or rat. Ok, their skin is somehow similar to ours, but they are not humans anyway.
I don’t even know whether products I often use are tested on animals but maybe I’d take it into consideration while buying despite the fact that it may be more expensive.
Honestly I don’t know if there are alternatives for animal testing but I’m pretty sure that there are people who know and can use it.
But alternatives I don't know...
Of course we cannot overuse this method. When there is a way to replace animals for something more "ethical" then researchers should do it. Unfortunately most times it's inevitable and we need to test things on animals.
If the price would be only slightly bigger and drug would have the same effects as the one tested on the animals, I would buy it. But in my opinion when it comes to my life or someone from my family, I don't pay attention if the drug was tested on animals or not.
It depends on what kind of product it would be. If it has inconsiderable meaning for me, i would buy it.
My opinion, that it is our life. You can't avoid the fact,that animal testing is needed. But what are alternatives, i really don't know. Maybe we should try to grow up some kind of prototypes to test different things, but it is our future that would come soon.
If I knew, that non-tested on animal is as good as animal tested, I would buy non-tested even if it was more expensive.
I think better test on animal then on people on even worse, without tests. Every product could be tested, because of his danger.
Would you buy a product non-tested on animals even if it was more expensive than the tested one?
Non-tested? What then is the prove of its safety.
What are the alternatives for animal testing?
I do not know Is there more reliable method. On computer simulators? Maybe but I am not convinced to that.
I'd not buy a non-animal tested product that is more expensive. After all, the profit margins are so unbelievably huge on cosmetics that I see no point whatsoever in paying an even higher price just because of that.
Finally, as stated in the article - we'd not be able to find many discoveries without animal testing, and if that can help us to find a cure for fatal diseases - I am totally for continuing of doing that.
The only fully morally acceptable alternative to animal/human testing is to artificially produce tissues resembling human body and test chemicals on them. It's seems to be a distant future, though.
I would like the products that I use to be tested somehow, I don't really care how. If it wasn't tested, I'd be the one on who it would be tested. That's why I wouldn't buy more expensive and untested product.
Mostly, there aren't much alternatives. In some cases there are and in this cases I fully support banning animal testing, even if it would mean that the end product would be slightly more expensive.
I would buy a product non-tested on anilams, even if it was more expensive - I started to search for such informations, as I don't want to be a part of it.
Topic of animal testing is really hard one. On the one hand - suffering of an innocent animals, but on the other - health and life of people. This is hard, but human life is worth more than animals, so some drugs couldn't be produced and given to people.
I think, that it should be forbiddenfor cosmetics and similar fields - they can try on, I don't know, soft material, lether or anything they need to test, but it is not important enough to be tested on being, who didn't want it.
And, as long as we won't any other and authoritative method some drugs probbaly should be tested on animals, so it won't harm people (and other animals, who will use it). But maybe they could test if as rarely as posiible, so there won't be any unnecessary sacrifices.
Conducting tests on animals is reprehensible and should be prohibited. When buying products, there is often no information as to whether they were tested on animals or not. I try to pay attention to what I buy and I'm willing to pay more if the product has't been tested on animals. Unfortunately, I don't know enough to state whether there are other possibilities to test products. I'm only surprised if we know the composition of the product, why can it affect users badly?
>Would you buy a product non-tested on animals even if it was more expensive than the tested one?
I'd buy a product for a higher price only if it would translate to higher quality. Otherwise its just pointless for me as a consumer- to pay more for nothing, just as it is with all those eco-gadgets in cars.
Some people stated that a good alternative is voluntary human testing. Well, it isn't, at least in the early stages - humans are too genetically diverse and getting comparable results or even creating a sufficient control group would be hard.
Would you buy a product non-tested on animals even if it was more expensive than the tested one? Nope. Cebula deals forever.
What are the alternatives for animal testing? It depends on the thing we want to test, it might be some artificial leather in case of cosmetics. The biggest problem is medicine. There is no better way than animal testing. Especially in cases when the cure or vaccine has to be made ASAP. Alternatives? There are few but not better. One of which is testing them on humans. Which? Those that live on the streets. They won't be missed won't they?
People need to be better informed about this.
If medicine that is non-tested on animals was 100% safe I would definitely pay more for it just to avoid unnecessary animal suffering.
Nowadays we can run some researches in labs, but they are not fully trustworthy until they are applied to real organism.
Unlike people think, buying non-tested products is not difficult and expensive. For example Rossmann's Alterra products are not tested on animals and vegan. There are many websites, like kocieuszy.blogspot.com or peta.org, that list cruelty-free companies. If a company is not on a list then it tests its products on animals. Some companies, like Bielenda, try to fool people into thinking the product is not tested by putting "vegan friendly" label on it. Of course the label is not official vegan certification which means product may contain animal products or may be tested on animals.
Nowadays the technology has moved on therefore we have a few alteratives to animal testing. Due to peta.org modern methods include sophisticated tests using human cells and tissues (also known as in vitro methods), advanced computer-modeling techniques (often referred to as in silico models), and studies with human volunteers. I strongly recommand reading the whole post:
https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-animal-testing/
http://features.peta.org/cruelty-free-company-search/index.aspx
The situation looks slightly different when it comes to medicine. But the problem is many times scientists know the product may have completely different effect on animal than on human yet still decide to conduct the experiment (even though the results will not help at all). Eventually every drug has to be tested on humans before being released.
If it comes about buying a product non-tested on animals i rather don't care about it. Maybe now i will start because i agree that it's like approvement for continuation tests.
When i was reading about alternatives for animal testing i find something like computer modeling. We have now huge knowledge about tissues and organisms so we can use it and computers to examine how our body will react with somethings.
As much as I hate delivering pain to any living creature, if it is beneficial to us, humans, in a way it can avoid side-effects and other fatal conditions, even accidental, then I'm all in for it. Even if it's "only" extra safety measure, I'd rather see 100 animals killed for better humanity, rather than 5 humans dying only because somebody decided that testing stuff on animal is bad.
I dont look at the labels of products looking at non tested on animals mark neither i do look for testing specification. If i had a choice it would come down to my budget on what to choose and if i feel like the more expensive product is worth the money.
If i knew the alternatives i would be a millionaire by now. its immoral to test on people, its bad to test on animals, its bad to test on plants... we get down to the loophole in which we start taking random drugs and hope for the best.
2. The most important criterion for me would be definitely safety. If non-animal tested product would be more expensive, but as safe as cheaper tested one, I would buy the first one.
3. The only one alternative for animal testing I can see is testing by human volunteers. People, who need money can decide to do it. But I don’t think it should be accepted.