A speech on Animal Testing.

I have always felt strongly about animal rights, and cruelty to animals, so I decided to do my speech on something less talked about and often avoided, which is animal vivisection- in other words, animal testing. The public are blinded by cover ups and lies that make animal testing seem a lot better than it really is which is why I think it is important to get all the facts out there and why I think it should be banned.

Animal vivisection is the study, experimentation and research of any animal. Animal rights activists are opposed to using animals for medical research and experimentation because humans do not have the right to use animals. With very few exceptions, we do not experiment on humans without their consent. Animals can’t give informed consent and the vast majority of experiments using animals are so invasive and damaging, that we would never even consider allowing humans to being subject to such experiments. Every year, animals are dissected, infected, injected, gassed, burned and blinded in hidden laboratories all over the world, most of the time without anesthetic or pain killers. If they aren’t killed by the testing, the animals are often not kindly but brutally killed. The dead animals are frequently left stacked in wheelbarrows in front of the animal cages.

Researches claim that they must have unlimited access to animals for experiments in order to find cures for human diseases, which in some cases cures have been found as a result. However, the ironic thing is that they refuse to deal with the ethical problems of torturing animals for our benefit. In fact, over-reliance on animal experimentation has historically delayed the advancement of our scientific knowledge. Animal testing has actually endangered the life of humans because the results from animal research can’t be applied to humans. This is because humans and animals are completely different from each other! Less than 2% of diseases in humans appear in animals, so can you see how we can find cures for any human disease from animals? I know I can’t! According to PETA’s fact sheet, they argue that ‘In many cases, animal studies do not just hurt animals and waste money, they kill people too.’”The drugs thalidomide, Zomax and DES were all tested on animals and judged safe but had devastating consequences for the humans who used them.”There are many more alternatives, most of which are much more effective then animal testing. These include in-vivo testing, which includes many different types of testing. For example, some labs use synthetic human skin, electronic database and chemical testing, which have a much higher percentage of success, for the same purpose as many continue to use animals for.

It is easy to think that being an Australian; we have nothing to do with animal testing in our country. However, any person, who donates to a medical charity, is potentially assisting to fund research involving animal testing. In Australia last year, 6.5 million animals were used in experiments. Animals just like our family pets are being subjected to medical research being performed to test the effects of new drugs, consumer research testing the safety of products such as makeup and education and training. Uni and TAFE students in many areas of occupations are being exposed and engaged to animal testing- some who will not even need to work with animals in their future career.

After doing work experience at the Vet clinic down here, I have seen what goes on behind doors. Obviously, it is much more humane there as they love the animals and are doing what is best for them. However, when the animals are put in big cages before they go into surgery, I have seen how they react. They get scared and whimper, as they have no idea what is going on. The cages are big enough for the animal to move around, and are given some food and water, but animals aren’t meant to be caged up.

In the research labs, imagine how these poor animals feel when they are shoved in cages that are so small they get grazes and cuts on their skin from trying to get comfortable, and worse still, shoved in these cages and made to fit in there with numerous other animals. Their limbs are often broken in the process and the scared animals often attack each other to the death. Despite the death of these animals before they even get tested, the lab workers continue to stuff them in tiny cages, each animal branded with a barcode number instead of a name.

In conclusion, animal testing is not reliable and is very expensive. Animal testing is inhumane and now that there are alternatives to this, there is no excuse for anyone to still commit this act. I suggest that governments fully ban animal testing, so that the world becomes a better and safer place for both animals and humans.

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