Dear Future President,

As you take office this upcoming January, you take the responsibility of America upon your shoulders and along with that comes the power to change the things that burden this country. One of those burdens is the use of animals for the experimentation of products and medical treatments. It is estimated that over a 100 million animals including mice, rats, dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, and much more are killed in the U.S. each year due to the experimentation of cosmetics, household cleaning supplies, medical treatments, drugs, and chemical testing just for the benefit of humans. The practice of animal testing has been around for centuries and dates back to the Greeks in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Many science and medical fields turn to animals in order to test the safety of a product before it is used by humans. Although animal testing may benefit humans, the act of causing an animal pain is cruel and inhumane and can easily be replaced by other alternatives.

In some eyes, animals are a nuisance on earth and are strictly present for the use of humans but to others, animals are seen as companions. Animals have the same rights as a human would and subjecting them to harmful experiments violates those rights. Animals are comparable to people in many ways such as thoughts, emotion, behavior, and pain. A dog can feel the same level of pain just as much as a human can. Unlike humans, those creatures can not verbally communicate their pain and have no choice in deciding whether they would like to participate in a research. The placement of animals on earth was not intended for humans to exploit for their own benefit. No benefit is worth the permanent damage physically and mentally, or even death of an innocent and helpless animal. These animals are not given a voice and their fate is decided by humans. Therefore, the rights of animals are violated and that act is immoral.

Although animals have some similarities with humans, the way animals' bodies react differ to how a human body would react to a certain product. The public is lead to believe that animal testing contributes to the success of medications and cures for diseases. There is even proof that some laboratories exaggerate their findings. However, what some do not know is that diseases that are artificially created in animals are hardly ever identical to those found in humans. It's questionable to believe if a successful result in an animal will yield the same effects in a human. As stated on PETA.org “In an article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that medical treatments developed in animals rarely translated to humans and warned that “patients and physicians should remain cautious about extrapolating the finding of prominent animal research to the care of human disease … poor replication of even high-quality animal studies should be expected by those who conduct clinical research.” The data received from science labs can be unreliable and essentially an animal's life is wasted due to these assumptions.

Some may think animal testing is the only way to test the safety of a product, but there are other alternatives such as computer modeling, in vitro test methods, and microdosing. Computer modeling can accurately predict how a new drug will react within a human without the need of using animals. Vitro testing, meaning test tube, uses human cell tissues to research diseases. Microdosing is the actual use of human volunteers to test a drug which can provide accurate and vital information. Many popular companies are starting to adopt these methods and states so on their packagings such as Lush, The Body Shop, Method, Too Faced, Bath & Body Works, and many others. Non-animal testing provides many benefits. The results gathered from these experiments are more reliable and precise since they use an actual human tissue. These methods are also more cost effective and practical. The best benefit of all is that no animal needs to go through pain and suffering.

Although there is evidence against animal testing, some still believe that animals are intended to be manipulated by humans, have no rights, and are vital for research on cures for diseases. Testing on an animal is unjust. Animals have the reputation of being below humans and are a mere object for us to play with. They should be respected just as any human is respected. Research that is conducted is unreliable and inaccurate. Animals are made differently than humans and the chances of both species having the same outcome are rare. As said by Dr. Elias Zerhouni, “We have moved away from studying human disease in humans. …We all drank the Kool-Aid on that one, me included. …The problem is that [animal testing] hasn’t worked, and it’s time we stopped dancing around the problem. …We need to refocus and adapt new methodologies for use in humans to understand disease biology in humans.” Organizations such as PETA and the Animal Justice Project are actively fighting this vicious act and are informing the public by providing vital information concerning animal testing. A life is wasted just for the enjoyment of makeup or a cleaning supply.

Animal testing is a serious issue that should not be taken lightly. For the animals' sake, I wish for you to consider this topic and enforce some action in preventing further harm to the animals suffering. We must take a stance and provide a voice to the animals that are helpless. With every minute wasted an animal dies due to the selfish acts of humans. The animals and I thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Gaby C.