October 26, 2016

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr./Mrs. President:

Congratulations on taking the huge role of leading our country. It is such a honor getting to have you as our president and being able to write to you today. I have a very important topic I would like to discuss with you and hopefully you will be able to change it so it won't ever have to happen again. I am an animal lover,as I am sure is the same with you, and I care about all animals and how they are treated. There is a concern of mine that must be of equal concern to you as well. That concern is animal testing. I believe that animal testing is cruel and inhumane and since there are many more efficient alternatives, animal testing should be eliminated. About 26 million animals are used every year in the United States for animal testing. Animal testing takes months and sometimes years to conduct and analyze. This can cost hundreds,thousands, and sometimes millions of dollars per substance examined. Additionally, there are several other reasons that we should stop animal testing and use alternatives.

In the first place, animal testing costs way more than using an alternative method. Animal testing costs $32,000 while the virto alternative is $11,000. The virto alternative is when they use a method that don’t involve animals. A rat phototoxicity test costs $11,000 when a non-animal equivalent costs $1,300. A rat uterotrophic assay costs $29,600 while the corresponding in vitro test costs $7,200. If we started using alternatives instead of animals it would save us a lot of money that we could put towards something useful like educational programs for schools.

Another reason why there are many dangers relying on animal research and testing when relying on them to improve our human health and in turn is very unsafe. It is unreasonable to think that using animal models to study human diseases is safe since there are many differences between humans and the animals. For example,many animals differ in anatomy, organ structure/function, toxin metabolism, and chemical and drug absorption. For instance, penicillin is toxic to guinea pigs, aspirin is poisonous to cats, yet these are all useful and used for humans. More than 80 HIV vaccines that have been proven safe and efficient in chimpanzees, our closest genetic relatives, aren't accurate results in humans. They have all failed to protect or to be safe in humans in nearly 200 human clinical trials. One of these trials actually increased human chance of HIV infection. In fact, studies have shown that if you flipped a coin to guess how a human will respond to a certain drug, your prediction would actually be as accurate as if you tested the drug on a nonhuman animal. The FDA reports that 92% of drugs approved for testing in humans fail to receive approval for human use. This alone should be enough reason to stop using animal testing since it does not usually accurately work on us and can even work against us.

One last reason why, animal testing is cruel and inhumane. According to www.peta.org Animals are forced to feel as though they are a prisoner and that they have committed a crime they didn't commit. There are many U.S laws that allow animals to be in experiments that include everything from testing new drugs to infecting with diseases, poisoning for toxicity testing, burning skin, causing brain damage, implanting electrodes into the brain, maiming, blinding, and many other painful procedures. Even though there are many alternatives that are available, the law does not require that they be used and they usually aren't. Not only are they suffering from pain, but also also sever stress everyday single day. They have to spend their lives in barren cages, unable to make their own choices and express their natural behaviors. Standard lab conditions usually consist of, small crowded cages, lack of enrichment, loud noises, and bright lights out of sync of natural lighting. These all cause a lot of stress on the animals, and is not fair to them.

As you can see, animal cruelty is expensive, is not efficient or reliable, and is cruel and inhumane. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Sincerely,

Madison D.