Do humans have the right to inflict cruelty on others?: Is animal testing good or bad? 

By Mrunmayee Wankar

“Is animal testing necessary to make drugs and cosmetics safer?” is a question that arises when talking about animal testing. To answer this, one must understand what exactly is meant by animal testing. Animal testing refers to the use of many organisms to seek to control the variables affecting their state. It, as a result, leads to exposing animals to an environment that is likely to cause them harm to test the effectiveness and safety of a product. However, it is not necessary that a product that undergoes and completes its drug testing is effective, and may even cause unknown side effects in humans upon usage. This entire process of animal experiments includes many horrifying things, such as force-feeding the animals potentially toxic substances, forcing them to inhale toxic gases, and removing their tissues and intestines to study their effect. And taking birth from the womb of this cruelty, a multimillion-dollar business has been making money from their suffering. 

Aside from the unethical nature of this business, people often forget the fact that the anatomy of the animals being tested on is vastly different from that of humans. Over 90% of the drugs that appear safe in animals are found to be ineffective in humans. The banning of animal testing in many countries has not only led to more effective drugs but also scientific advancement, as more companies have had to opt for other methods to check the effectiveness of the products. Some of the scientific advancements that have recently arisen include silico models, which can simulate the conditions of specific organs and tissues; in-vitro models are also another way of testing the safety of these products and are more effective and less costly. So not only is animal testing unethical and unreliable, but its ban leads to much safer and healthier products and even leads to scientific development. 

Yet it continues to be practised in many countries such as China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France, and many more. About 192.1 million animals were estimated to be used worldwide for scientific experiments in 2015. The only thing allowing the perpetrator of these experiments to carry out these undeniably cruel experiments on helpless animals is simply the fact that they lack the means to voice their opinion. So it is our job to spread awareness about this issue and speak for those who cannot.