In this blog post, we discuss whether animal testing is necessary for scientific advancement or whether it should be abandoned for the sake of animal rights, and examine the pros and cons.
Recently, the argument that animal testing should be abandoned has become a hot topic among scientists. The argument that animals possess rights similar to humans and that humanity must prioritize animal rights and welfare has gained significant global attention. However, without animal testing, scientific progress, particularly in the field of medicine, would not have been as successful as it is today. For example, without animal testing, substances that are harmless to adults but toxic to children would not have been detected. Without animal testing, approximately one million children under the age of five would lose their lives each year. Furthermore, thousands of people gain new opportunities for life each year through organ transplant surgeries developed through animal testing. Therefore, I argue that animal testing should be supported for the betterment of humanity. However, the movie Planet of the Apes prompts us to think deeply about animal testing once again.
In the movie, humans conduct numerous experiments and training on chimpanzees for space exploration, and then entrust them with dangerous missions. Through experimentation and training, the chimpanzees learn to think like humans, and eventually, in the future depicted in the movie, chimpanzees come to rule over humans. After watching the movie, many people may oppose animal testing, but I still believe that it should continue because it can bring great benefits to humanity.
Looking at examples from the last century, we can see that almost all medical achievements have directly or indirectly depended on animal experimentation research. The U.S. Public Health Service, the UK Department of Health, and over 500 scientists, including 250 professors and three Nobel laureates, publicly supported animal experimentation. Their reasons for supporting animal testing can serve as the basis for my own support. I will analyze the reasons for maintaining animal testing from three perspectives: safety, effectiveness, and general research (disease research).
First, let us briefly examine why animals are used as research subjects. Although animals differ greatly from humans in appearance, their bodily mechanisms are often very similar. For this reason, animals can be used as surrogate models for humans.
Animal research provides clues for disease prevention and treatment, contributing to saving millions of lives. Therefore, animal testing research has been ongoing for decades. The first reason why animal testing should continue is that newly developed drugs or vaccines must first be tested on animals before being applied to humans. Since animals’ bodily mechanisms are similar to those of humans, harmful drugs can be filtered out in advance.
This allows us to prevent harmful drugs from reaching humans. However, opponents of animal testing argue that the safety of drugs can be verified through computer modeling and cell tissue research. However, computer and cell research alone cannot accurately replicate the complex mechanisms of the human body. Therefore, even after conducting computer modeling and cell research, animal testing is still required in laboratories.
The second reason is that animal testing allows us to confirm the effectiveness of newly developed drugs. Even drugs that demonstrate excellent efficacy in animal testing may fail when applied to humans. This is because humans and animals do not have completely identical bodily mechanisms. For example, chocolate, which people enjoy eating, can be fatal to dogs, and aspirin, which is commonly used by humans, is highly toxic to cats. Despite this, animal testing has continued to evolve over the past 60 years, and scientists have made significant efforts to determine which animals are most suitable for specific drug experiments. For example, cats are considered the most suitable model for neurological research due to their similarity to the human nervous system, while dogs and pigs are excellent experimental models for cardiovascular research. Scientists continue to conduct research to identify the most accurate animal models.
The third reason is that animal testing not only tests the safety and efficacy of new drugs and vaccines, but also deepens our understanding of diseases and leads to the development of new treatments. Looking back at the history of human medicine, animal testing has made significant contributions to research on the prevention and treatment of diseases such as diabetes, polio, Parkinson’s disease, and hypertension. Recently, animal testing has also deepened our genetic understanding of cancer and led to the development of new treatments that target cancer cells more directly. For example, 25 years ago, 70% of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia died within five years, but thanks to research on mice, this rate has now dropped to 20%.
Additionally, in the United States, new drugs developed through animal testing have improved the average survival rate of cancer patients by 10.7%. Even considering this data alone, it is difficult to deny the positive impact of animal testing on human health. Opponents of animal testing argue for animal rights and welfare, which is understandable. However, animal testing does not solely benefit humans; it can also contribute to the health of animals.
In the case of animals whose bodily mechanisms are similar to those of humans, the results obtained from animal testing are also utilized in the treatment of animal diseases. For example, insulin, which is used to treat diabetes, is also effectively used in animals such as dogs and cats, and diseases such as influenza, leukemia, distemper, and rabies can now be prevented and treated through animal testing.
Finally, animal testing is not only an important means of determining the safety and efficacy of drugs, but also an important research method for improving the lives of both humans and animals. Most medical discoveries in the last century were made through animal testing, and it has also been instrumental in developing treatments for incurable diseases such as AIDS. Although a cure for AIDS has not yet been fully discovered, animal testing is opening up new possibilities for treatment. If a cure for AIDS is developed, countless lives will be saved, and human medicine will enter a new era. Therefore, we believe that animal testing must continue. Animals are our saviors, and through them, the lives of both humans and animals will become even better.
