Samreet Kaur: Animal testing 1

Shocked. Shaking. Terrified. An innocent defenceless "lab rat" quietly sits alone in the corner of
the cold cage. Flashbacks of the scary men snatching him away from his home repeating
constantly in his mind. We must ban animal testing to prevent millions of naive creatures like him
from being used in research.

Shouldn't we leave animal testing, an ancient practice, in the past? Animals have been forcefully
utilized by humans in agriculture for various reasons such as food and labour since the start of
historical records. Animals have been subject to medical and cosmetical testing as early as 500
BC. In Greece, animals were used by cruel, heartless and unethical scientists and philosophers
such as Aristotle and Herophilus to perform experiments in order to discover the function of living
organisms. Although some proponents of animal testing may argue it is beneficial to expand
medical knowledge, we cannot ignore the unnecessary discomfort and torture poor animals have
to suffer.

Myopic scientists should have an epiphany about the detrimental treatment voiceless creatures
are put through in order to gain useless knowledge that can mislead researchers into ignoring
potential cures or even starting new viruses. Due to animal testing countless animals are
becoming subject to forced feeding, food and water deprivation and the implication of bruises
and injuries to test the healing process of a living organism. In January 2020, the US Department
of Agriculture reported: 300,000 animals were used in activities involving pain in just one year.
Furthermore, animal testing blinds researchers from the anatomic, metabolic and cellular
differences between a human and animal body; therefore, drugs that pass animal testing are not
necessarily safe. For example, in the 1950s the sleeping pill thalidomide caused 10,000 babies
to be born with severe deformities, before being released into the market the drug was tested on
animals. As moral and just Australians, we must unite to defend our naive pets.

Through years of research, we can finally leave animal testing in the past because of the various
alternatives that have been invented. New alternatives such as in vitro testing and artificial
human skin can finally replace the need for animals. Furthermore, human volunteers are an
amazing option for testing vaccines. Cruel and heartless. Animal testing must be banned before
monsters disguised as scientists and researchers continue to abuse their authority over voiceless
creatures.