October 26, 2016

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Washington DC 20500

Dear Mrs/Mr President:

I am an eighth-grade student. I feel like testing on animals should be illegal. Animal testing is animal abuse. These animals are treated very badly, against their will and sometimes even suffer death. I feel this is wrong because these animals can’t control what is happening to them, and they suffer so much.

To begin with, the reason animal testing should be Illegal is the most obvious reason, that animal testing is cruel and inhumane. According the Humane Society animals tested on are normally force-feed, forced inhalation (when they give you air to breath), food and water deprivation, and many others. There is also a test that many people are unaware of. This is called the Draize Eye test, this involves rabbits being incapacitated with their eyelids held open by clips. These rabbits are unable to blink for days, these innocent animals go through this all to test if a shampoo and many other things are safe. Finally, in 2010 the US department of Agriculture reported 97,123 animals suffered pain while given no anesthesia. I hope that this reason and the two more to come make you think twice about animal testing.

Pursuing this further, My second reason on why I feel animal testing should be illegal is, alternative testing methods now exist that can replace the need for animals. First, study creatures in a petri dish, can produce much more relevant results than using animals, because human cells can be used. Secondly, artificial human skin can be produced, which prove more useful results than by using animals. Thirdly, computer models can predict the toxicity of substances without experimenting on animals. I am concerned about how these animals are being treated and I hope this reason will help with your decision on illegalizing animal testing.

Yet another reason why, Animals are very different from human beings and therefore make poor testing subjects. Firstly, the anatomic; relating to the structure of the body, the metabolic; relating to the metabolism of an organism, and the cellular difference between animals and humans make animals poor testing subjects for products that humans, not animals use. Next, Paul Furlong, a professor of Clinical neuro imaging at Aston University; states, “it is very hard to create an animal model that is even close to what a human is.” Lastly, Thomas Hartung, professor of Evidence based toxicology at John Hopkins university states, “ We are not 70 kg rats.” I hope this last reason really persuaded you on making animal testing illegal.

I conclusion, I realize that some people may be for animal testing and they may think that it is okay. They may think, animal testing has contributed to many life saving cures and treatments or that, their is no adequate alternative to testing on a living, whole-body system, or lastly that animals are appropriate research subjects because animals are similar to humans in many ways. But I just hope that those counterarguments don’t change your opinion on animal testing being wrong. Lastly, I’d like to congratulate you on becoming the new president. And I hope you succeed during your presidency. I hope you are now convinced that animal testing is wrong by the three reasons I provided you with.

Animal testing is very cruel, inhuman, and revolting. Just think, “what can I do to stop animal testing?” So next time, you support animal testing, buy doing things like buying products who test on animals, think about how many innocent animals are being hurt for one product. I hope that after reading this letter you are inspired to do something about the problem of animal testing.

Sincerely,

Faith S.