This is a short essay on animal testing for children. It is deliberately written in simplified English. The ideas have also been simplified.
Animal testing is a tricky subject. People have strong ideas about it. There is a lot of animal testing. This means that most people agree that it is alright. But a lot of people think that it is cruel. The strength of feeling of people who dislike animal testing can result in them protesting and taking direct action by damaging laboratories.
You could say that it is wrong to do any sort of animal testing. If you don’t believe that, you should believe that it is wrong to test cosmetics on animals. This is because cosmetics are made to make people look more attractive. To put animals through pain and suffering for that reason must be wrong because looking good is not important enough. It is almost impossible to believe that anyone could accept animal testing of cosmetics. It is banned in Europe.
When animal testing is done in order to test new drugs which may save the lives of people then the discussion becomes more complicated. A lot of people would say that if animal testing saves the lives of people then it should be done. This is because the pain and discomfort suffered by the animals is outweighed by the benefits to people. This is a good argument.
But I don’t agree with the argument. Animal testing can only be accepted if it is believed that humans are superior to animals and that animals exist to serve people. A lot of people do not believe this. As humans become more civilised or advanced we understand that the belief that animals exist to serve people is wrong. This is partly because science tells us that animals are very much like humans. They feel pain, have emotions and can make friends. They can be sociable.
It is the natural arrogance of humans which makes them believe that they are superior to animals. If you put the arrogance to one side then is far more difficult to justify animal testing of any sort. If humans want to test new drugs which saves the lives of people then they should do it in a way that does not harm animals. A lot of testing of animals can be done using models which react like animals and computers rather than using live animals. These modern methods are becoming more accurate and can be superior to animal testing. Although this type of drug testing needs to be expanded.
Many animals are killed after drugs are tested on them. They are kept in cages and under emotionally sterile conditions. Animal testing is made more complicated because some of the animals are more advanced than others. People might think that it is okay to test drugs on mice but not cats. Sometimes apes have been used for testing. These animals are very similar to humans.
Also, sometimes drugs do not work in the same way on animals as they do on humans. Therefore the testing can be inaccurate and misleading. Big business does most animal testing. Their aim is to make money and not to be too concerned about the lives of animals that they test on. It would cost more to do testing in other ways. This is a reason why they don’t want to do it.
The fact is that in the future I would expect that there would be no more animal testing because better methods would have been created and people will become more civilised to the point where they understand the immorality of testing drugs and new products on animals for the benefit of humans.
If you look at the history of the relationship between humans and animals you can see a gradual change towards better animal welfare. It is a very slow process. As we have improved our relationship with animals in the past then it is fair to expect that we can continue to improve the relationship in the future. Therefore, I am confident that over the next century animal testing will become part of human history.
Note: this essay was written without reading books on the subject. If you can add to it or improve it, please leave a comment.