Animal Testing: Inefficient & Inhumane Way to Develop New Medications

Introduction

To detect how safe a drug, vaccine, or cosmetic product is for human use many companies take advantage of animal testing for their products. Not only rodents and rabbits are commonly used for these medical experiments but also birds, dogs, and cats.    

A country that has been doing this for a prolonged period in China. It is the only country that requires by law to test any cosmetic products’ safety on animals before they enter the market – this includes imported goods from other countries too. If Chinese companies do not undergo animal testing for their products; they would have to pay a third party to do these tests for them. However, the NMPA (National Medical Products Association) has recently decided that imported goods can enter the Chinese market without any approval from scientific laboratories. Nonetheless, it is still not fully assured whether China will adapt to this.    

In-vitro testing is now utilized as an alternative to animal testing. It requires new drugs to be tested on human cells in a test tube and has shown efficient results in a much cheaper way. As a society that wants better for the world, animal testing must be stopped.  

Cost of life's

Animal testing is outrageously expensive. Some might think that it is cheaper than other alternatives yet it is not. It costs a lot of money to shelter, sustain medication, and provide medical care for the animals that are required for the examination. A trial for the ‘non-genotoxic cancer risk’ can cost up to $700,000 whereas an in-vitro test only costs $22,000. The government funds these research sites; this means that the government is wasting their money by supporting these inefficient, unnecessary, and expensive experiments. If scientists stop using animal models and focus on getting more research done by using in-vitro tests, then more studies can take place and more people can be saved. Many people who are in need can be helped through the billions of money wasted on these studies, therefore scientists must offer in-vitro testing over animal testing to save money as well as innocent animals from these cruel clinical trials. 

Animals do not struggle from illnesses that are caused by a man's unhealthy habits, therefore each animal chosen to be examined must first become ill - for example, diabetes in animals is caused by the destruction of poison cells in the pancreas - however, there is no guarantee that replicating such symptoms will provide a cure for the disease.

Evidence shows that medication approved during clinical trials fails in the subsequent drug tests on humans by 90%; either because they were ineffective or they had several side effects. Whereas, when researchers are studying the mental system of human beings, they often use traumatizing procedures until the animal responds with a certain symptom of a specific mental disorder e.g., to investigate depression, electric shocks are given to rodents that cause them to run until they break down in fatigue.

At present, no scientist has to validate themselves for causing harm towards these poor creatures. The purpose to review results from clinical trials is to confirm whether a treatment is found but the use of animals in these experiments is ignored. They are poked, prodded, and ejected various chemicals that are harmful to their health; they go through extreme pain just for a useless result. Why is this still being used?

Just as some drugs work on animals but during clinical trials on humans they result in a failure, so too medicines that are successful for the use of human beings will have a ridiculously small or hazardous effect on the animals tested. Different types of drugs are considered safe for human use and dangerous for animals and vice-versa.

An example of a drug now used for organ transplant patients was remarkably close to being dismissed as the clinical trials on animals did not have a precise result. 

Another trial that proved animal testing is useless, occurred in 2006 when eight healthy men received a drug named TGN1412 made to treat leukemia.

The moment the drug was taken all patients started to feel extreme pain in their bodies; some were throwing up; some lost consciousness; and one had toes and fingers that fell off. Doctors and nurses were shocked and confused as they were unaware of where these symptoms originated from. Surprisingly, they all survived but the experiments affected the rest of their lives as some people were told that there may be an elevated risk of cancers and other chronic disorders. As animal research is highly inefficient and costly, scientists should avoid taking major risks and start using in-vitro testing. Animals will not be involved in these cruel tests if alternatives are used, a great deal of money will be saved and such tragedies can also be avoided.   

As mentioned, animals are not a clear representation of how the human body reacts to a specific type of medicine; however, animal testing has been significant in many life-saving medications and treatments. A hundred years of animal testing has led scientists to discover new treatments that were labeled as untreatable in the past. Scientists would have taken a longer period of time if animal testing was not used as there would have been limited resources. Besides, animals used for clinical trials usually have short lifespans, like mice and frogs who also have fast reproductive systems which means that the extinction of these animals is less likely to happen. Replicating autoimmune diseases in animals such as fruit flies and rats is much more efficient compared to a human tissue dish. Many diseases developed by the pet community are often similar to human diseases so both animals and humans benefit from animal testing.

In reality, millions of animals are dying because of deforestation (in countries like Nigeria, Brazil, Indonesia, etc.). This could lead to more than 30% of the world’s species being wiped out by 2050. Furthermore, over 100 million animals are killed by hunters every year just in the United States. Hunting also causes suffering and pain to animals and it tears many animal families apart. Do animal enthusiasts not see any problems with these factors? These will cause long-lasting problems for everyone; therefore, they should not be ignored.

Animal testing has helped humankind to reach the end of the race line to discover cures for different diseases but has failed to get to some solutions too.   

“There is no way in the world to extrapolate animals to human circumstances. Animal research is cruel to the animal, dangerous to the public, and misleading to the scientist”. This highlights how clinical trials are inhumane towards animals; they are significant as animals are part of the ecosystem of this planet.

Can we imagine ourselves in a situation that these animals get put through every day? Animals cannot speak up for themselves; no one should take advantage of that and label animal testing as harmless. Some still insist to keep animals as research models because they have led to many new scientific medical cures however, animal testing is no longer needed because there are alternatives that have the ability to do this effortlessly. Animal testing is wrong and firm actions should be taken against people who favor it.  

Conclusion

In conclusion, animal testing is an outdated, cruel, and unnecessary practice that needs to be stopped. The cost of animal testing is not only financial but also the cost of the animals' lives and well-being. In-vitro testing is an effective and more humane alternative that can provide efficient results at a lower cost. Animal testing is not a reliable representation of how humans react to the medication and can lead to severe side effects or even death. As a society, we must push for more in-vitro testing to save innocent animals from these cruel clinical trials and to save billions of dollars in research. It is time to recognize that the use of animals in research is not only unnecessary but also cruel and inhumane, and we must move towards alternative methods to continue making progress in the field of medicine.