The controversy of animal testing for medical purposes has been a heated topic for many years now. Many feel that it's acceptable and others see it as inhumane. "Many organizations have been formed with the sole purpose of keeping animals from laboratories," (McCoy 54). I personally feel that there are other ways to test medical drugs other than on animals. Other options include testing on prisoners, people who are willing to be paid to have the drug tested on them, and people who are terminally ill, and as a last hope, want to try the "new drug". .
Animals that are used for testing purposes usually end up dying. They are usually pumped full of a disease or virus and then they try a vaccine on them, which in the end, usually fails. In which case, the animal ends up suffering and dying. While being tested, they are kept in tiny cages, instead of being able to run free like they should. In some cases, animal testing may give a different result with humans. "Misleading animal tests can be devastating for human health." (Bender 69).
The early stages of an animals life in a laboratory is extremely stressful. In fact, many animals born within the laboratories live very short lives. Some common conditions of animals that are kept for medical purposes include; pneumonia, colitis, enteritis, gastric bloat and rupture, encephalitis, and spticemia. They lose fingers and toes, suffer from gangrene, and die from several bacterial infections. We must remember that even though they are animals, they too have feelings. They feel stress and pain. In laboratories, they suffer and die. Their deaths should be remembered and mourned. .
One alternative to testing on animals is testing on prisoners. If a person has committed a horrible crime, and is serving life in prison, we might as well use him or her for the testing of medications. That way, we would be able to see the effects on humans, rather than on helpless animals.
