Reasons Why Animal Testing Should Be Banned

An estimated 100 million animals are used in laboratory tests every year. Tests are done on all kind of animals: mice, rats, rabbits, apes but also dogs and cats.
5 reasons to ban animal testing:
- Animal testing is cruel. Many animal tests lead to pain on animals and a part of the tests are performed without any pain killers. Some tests lead to permanent injury or death. The toxicology of some products are tested by putting it in the eyes of a rabbit for days.
- Animals have rights too. Animals have rights as well and they shouldn’t be violated. Human beings are just another species of animals. Most of us wouldn’t accept that 100 million people would be submitted every year to non-voluntary tests (many leading to pain or death). Why do we allow it with animals? Animals are non-volunteers in tests when tests could be done with alternative methods.
- Animal tests aren’t reliable. People and animals are different and that’s why a medicine or cosmetic ingredient that is safe on animals may not be it on people or vis-versa. For example aspirin is toxic to rats and mice but not to people (source: BUAV)
- There are alternative to animal testing. These includes for example embryonic stem cell research. Also using volunteering people instead ofnon-volunteering animals is one of the alternatives.
- Animal tests are often unnecessary. As results from animal tests are often considered commercial secrets, it happens that the same products or ingredients are tested many times by different companies. The necessity of animal testing for cosmetics can be also questioned. Furthermore alternatives to animal research could be used.