...The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Animal experimentation is such a harsh thing. Many people are unaware as to what goes on in animal testing. Numerous products that are widely used were tested on animals, such as Crest toothpaste, Secret deodorant, Tide detergent, and many others.

There are arguments that animal research is based on a false assumption, that results obtained through animal experimentation can be applied to the human body. Animals not only react differently to drugs than humans but they react different from one another. Ignoring this difference has been very risky and costly to human health.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the most famous example of dangers of animal testing took place. Thalidomide, which was marketed in Germany, had been safety tested on thousands of animals. It was supposed to be a wonderful sedative for pregnant mothers to aid morning sickness. It supposedly caused no harm to the mother or child. Despite this safety testing , at least 10,000 children whose mothers had taken Thalidomide were born with severe deformities. Many children did not have legs, arms, or other body parts.

There are many debates over whether or not animal experimentation is useful to human beings. In some ways it is useful for finding medical advances, but many progressions have come from other sources than animal experimentation. To name a few of the medical advances there are; the development of x-rays and anti-depressants or psychotic drugs, isolation of the AIDS virus, and many others.

The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 100,000 people are killed every year by prescription drugs and more than 2 million are hospitalized with serious complications from prescription drugs.

Clearly, if we are going to make medical progress, a new approach is needed. It is extremely dangerous to apply data from one species to another. For example; aspirin kills cats but is relatively safe for humans. Penicillin kills cats and guinea pigs, but has saved many human lives.

Out of 135 criminals, including robbers and rapists, 118 admitted that when they were children they burned, hanged and stabbed domestic animals.

Experimentation on animals is cruel. Usually what they do is test new drugs on the animals. Other times they cut open the animal to see how it will react. This is called Vivisection. It is cruel and unusual. Most doctors opposed vivisection and experimentation. But still animal experimentation exists and is used all around the world. The number of animals used in testing is continuing to rise. I will finish with a quote from Albert Einstein;

There will come a day when such men as myself will view the slaughter of innocent creatures as horrible a crime as the murder of his fellow man - Our task must to be free ourselves - by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.