ANIMAL RIGHTS

Most of us live their own life without ever seeing animals dying in laboratory cage. It’s easy for us not to think about the suffering, because we don’t see it. Each year, scientist perform experiments on million of animals. Mice and rats account for about 90 per cent of the animals used in medical research. Other animals commonly used include cats, dogs, guinea pigs, and monkeys. The first known use of animals as medical research subjects was recorded by the Greek physician Galen in the A.D. 100´s.Early experiments on animals, conducted before the development of anesthetics /painkillers/, were very painful. Unfortunately also nowadays there are many laboratories which don´t use anesthetics.
Animals are killing in purpose of inventing new medicaments; cosmetics … the scientist´s claim that humane treatment of animal is an important part of research because pain and suffering create circumstances that produce unreliable data.
The animal rights activists consider the procedure called vivisection to be very cruel and painful. Vivisection is animal experimentation that involves performing surgery on animals. Literally it means, “cutting alive“. The animals are opened and the medicaments or drugs are tested on them until they don’t die. Before the scientist cut the animals they cut them out their vocal cords.
Many people – especially animal right activist think that animal testing is cruel and unnecessary and the results are more than often misleading, because you can’t say that, for example, a reaction to a certain substance in a rat is going to be the same in a human. That is what makes animal testing so ridiculous. Why test upon animals, when there are other methods of testing products, without using animals? Experiments can be done on tissue cultures or through computer simulations instead of on whole animals. Often, new products can be tested on human tissue samples obtained from operating rooms or from volunteers. Tests done on human tissues are often more accurate in predicting harmful effects to human beings than tests done on animals. People and other animals don’t always share the same reactions. There are some examples: Penicillin: a useful antibiotic for people - but it kills guinea pigs. Cancer drug: 6-azauridine can be used in humans - but small doses can kill dogs in a couple of days. Aspirin: works in people - but it causes birth defects in cats. What’s very interesting that the start of blood transfusion was delayed by over 200 years because of misleading results of animal experiments. The introduction of corneal transplants was delayed by 90 years for the same reason. And drugs have been passed safe in animals, only to harm or kill people. But not only the medicament are being tested on animals. Also very famous factories like factories which are producing for example: Ariel washing powder, Bold washing powder Hugo Boss, Head and Shoulders shampoo, Lenor fabric conditioner, Max Factor Pampers nappies, Pantene Pro-V shampoo, Wash ´n´Go shampoo… Although animals experimentation are used to being very cruel, there are also some reasons for doing it. Scientist perform experiments on animals for a variety of reasons. For example, they use animals to test new drugs or medical procedures. Such tests help determine if human being might benefit from the drugs or procedures. They also use animals to learn what harmful effects a new product - such as cosmetic, a drug, a food addictive, or a pesticide – might have on human. It’s said that today, scientists use anesthetics in experiments on animals, and laws prohibit inhumane treatment of the animals. In addition, scientist point out that alternative methods of experimentation are not always appropriate. For example, testing a drug on isolated tissues or organs will not show how the drug affects the body as a whole.
It will be quite nice and maybe a little bit fair if the animals are being misused only for certain medical and scientifically purposes. There are plenty of places where animal suffer, only because people want to entertain their selves, or because they want t o provide food in not really human way – for example in China, where are the animals being killed in a particular cruel way. Unfortunately not only China is famous for cruel killing animals. Everywhere in the world are the chickens and turkeys raised for meat suffer from severe genetic manipulations, overcrowding, and filthy living conditions. Hens kept for egg production are packed in cages so tightly that they cannot even stretch their wings… When Aristoteles said that human is a social being he exactly knew what he had meaned. It’s enough to mention Spain and their national sport – bullfighting, which is considered to be a demonstration of human power on the defenseless bull. And after this „beautiful „demonstration is bull killed. What´s interesting only few times they kill bulls on the first time. Usually they need several tries and the animal suffer. Only few people can imagine how the animals in the circus suffer. Just think about it. In the wild, bears don’t ride bicycles, tigers don’t jump through fiery hoops, and elephants don’t stand upright on their hind legs. Circuses portray a distorted view of wildlife. Most elephants used by circuses were captured in the wild. Once removed from their families and natural habitat, their lives consist of little more than chains and intimidation. Baby elephants born in breeding farms are torn from their mothers, tied with ropes, and kept in isolation until they learn to fear their trainers. Elephants often suffer crippling injuries from constant chaining and performing physically difficult tricks.
Using dangerous animals in performances jeopardizes public safety and often puts children at greatest risk. Since 1990, 47 people have been killed and more than 100 seriously injured by captive elephants. The animal rights activists see the solution in human performances…