Dear Future President,

Your heart is pounding, increasing with every sound. The giants are coming back; they always do. You dread the moment they arrive, but you know it is inevitable. The feeling of stares sends shivers up your back, but you are starting to get used to it. The door clicks open, and you close your eyes waiting for the pain to be be over. To the average reader, this would seem to be a work of fiction. In reality, this is the typical life of test animals. Animal testing is inhumane, very expensive, and makes inaccurate results. Every year 100 million animals are killed from testing in the United States alone. We should save endless amounts of innocent lives by putting an end to animal testing.

Testing on animals is meant to find which products are safe for humans. While trying to find safe products may seem like a good idea, it’s actually causing harm to humans as well as the animals. There is more than 90 percent that a drug or medicine tested safe on animals will be ineffective or unsafe for you, which means that you will not only need to handle an existing sickness, but your body will have to deal with an unknown one. Animal testing researchers often have feelings of attachment and affection towards the animals, which can cause unresolved internal struggle and conflict. Especially when some euthanasia (mercy killings) administered to the animals include lethal injections, suffocation by carbon dioxide, or breaking the neck of the animal. Not only is animal testing harming humans from a medical aspect, but it is also harming them financially. The White Coat Waste Project is just one organization devoted to uncover the government’s $12 billion a year animal experiment budget. The money paid for taxes that was said to go to schools and education programs really go towards harming helpless animals.

Another problem with animal testing is that the animals react to diseases, medicines, and toxins differently that humans. One example of inaccurate animal testing results is Oraflex, Opren (Benoxaprofen). Even though it went through year-long tests in rhesus monkeys, it gave no sign of risk. Months after this non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) was released onto the market in 1982, patients began experiencing severe liver toxicity and phototoxicity, eventually ending in withdrawal of the drug, but only after more than 3,500 serious adverse events and 60 deaths occurred in Britain alone. Another example is Rezulin (Troglitazone). It was a drug intended to treat type 2 diabetes, and was approved by the FDA in 1997. While testing on rats didn’t show any adverse effects, reports of severe and even fatal liver failure appeared immediately after approval. Rezulin was withdrawn in 2000 after 391 deaths caused by the drug. So many humans were harmed, and there are so many alternatives than testing on animals which would give us more accurate results. One solution comes from Harvard’s Wyss Institute. It has created “organs-on-chips” that contain human cells grown in a state-of-the-art system to mimic the structure and function of human organs and organ systems. The chips can be used instead of animals in disease research, drug testing, and toxicity testing and have been shown to replicate human physiology, diseases, and drug responses more accurately than crude animal experiments do. Some companies, such as the HµRel Corporation, have already turned these chips into products that other researchers can use in place of animals. This is one of many solutions, and is much safer and humane for everyone.

Animal testing is a problem that is inhumane, very expensive, and makes inaccurate results that can end in human lives being taken as well as animal lives. Animal testing should be stopped to save endless amounts innocent humans and animals. The inaccurate results from the animals are killing thousands, if not millions, of people and animals, and the precious tax money being paid is helping support murder when it could be spent promoting education. Instead of spending $12 billion on supporting animal testing, use it to help the animals being tested on. After that, use the money to find more alternative ways to find safe products for humans.

Sincerely,

Amanda Lew