Another ongoing controversy between the people for animal experimentation and those against it is whether or not testing human drugs and procedures on animals is accurate. Although both animals and humans have many physical similarities, such as the presence of a heart, lungs, brain, immune system and more, they are still very different in many other ways. They are different physiologically, metabolically, anatomically, genetically, and psychologically. Animals and humans are different on the cellular level, which can result in animals and humans reacting differently to medications and diseases. For example, diseases such as AIDS and coronary artery disease only affect humans, and only humans can get lung cancer from smoking cigarettes (NAVS). Because of this, animal test results frequently do not accurately represent the outcome of when a human has the same procedure or takes the same drug. This theory is evident in a tragic incident that took place in the 1950’s. A drug called thalidomide was created to fight pregnant women’s chronic nausea, known commonly as “morning sickness.” Before it was released on the market, it was tested on a group of pregnant hamsters, dogs, cats, rats, chickens, and rabbits. None of these animals experienced any negative side effects, so the drug was released for commercial use. Several years later, after nearly 10,000 children were born with birth defects, it was found that thalidomide was a teratogen (an agent that interferes with the development of an embryo.) This incident shows that in certain cases, drugs may affect humans negatively, yet be fine for animals. The opposite is the same as well. For instance, an animal may show negative side affects to a certain drug. In that case, experimentation does not continue; it is not tested on humans. Because this happens often, there is a chance that one of these medications may be rather effective with humans. For all we know, new and promising treatments may be overlooked every time an animal test is unsuccessful (NAVS). Also, because animals lack the ability to communicate with humans verbally, scientists have no idea as to what the animals are feeling in the inside, unless it is apparent by the animal’s behavior (PETA).

Many kinds of animals are used for experimentation in countless laboratories all over the United States. These animals are basically used for two things: scientific research and product testing. Scientific research experiments may consist of testing a new drug on animals to find if it is safe for humans, purposefully infecting an animal with a disease to either find new treatments for that disease or just to observe how the disease affects the animal, experimenting with new surgery or medical techniques, or subjecting the animal to certain traumatizing conditions and studying the animal’s psychological and behavioral patterns during and/or afterwards (Lee 18-29).

A particular animal experimentation activist maintains “it is impossible to explore, explain, or predict the course of many diseases or the effects of many treatments without observing and testing the entir

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