Dear Future President,

Over 115 million animals are either burned, crippled, or poisoned each year due to laboratory experiments. All over the U.S. animals are forced to undergo experiments causing them ongoing pain and eventual death. There are some regulations addressing the standard of care these animals must receive, yet it excludes 95 percent of animals tested upon. Most of these animals never see sunlight and live in spaces barely big enough to move in. In the European Union, India, and Israel bans have been made on using animals for testing cosmetics, but in the U.S. only California passed a law limiting product-testing with animals. It was reported that only six percent of drugs successfully proven with animals were successful with humans. I do not think humans should benefit through the animal's pain. I hope that you, as our next president, will be able to make a stand and give these animals the lives they deserve.

Lab experiments performed on animals affect them in horrible ways. Out of all mammals, a monkey’s reaction to its surroundings has the most similarities with a human’s. For them, living in labs is living in constant stress and trauma. The result of this can come out physically by self-harming themselves, or in chronic inflammatory conditions, also known as stress-induced psychosis. Imagine how this would be if it were humans in those cages. Another example can be mice, they are one of the most used animals in testing. They spend their fearful lives in cramped, crowded cages, leaving them only to go through an experiment of incessant physical and mental suffering. These are just two of the many animals used in testing, other animals such as cats, dogs, and rabbits also experience these atrocities. They are usually born in labs and spend their lives in one, never breathing fresh air. This also means they are in cages their whole lives, perpetually enduring emotional and physical agony, never having a respite. All these animals live in constant dread of what will be done to them next.

The solution to this issue can be to officially give animals the rights they rightfully deserve. There has been many debates on whether or not to enforce animal laws, yet no part of the government took heed in them, dismissing them as minor issues. Most people’s arguments are that animals are simple creatures without real emotions. And yet it was proven that animals can feel just like humans. Humans aren’t superior because of their emotions or intellect, they are superior because of their ability to communicate and be heard. Animal rights are animals' only voice. The Animal Welfare Act is the only federal law in the United States that regulates the treatment animals must receive in research, but it only involves eight percent of them. There are some other laws or policies, but they all refer to this act as their guideline. I think that a solution to our issue is to enforce this act by adding laws and have stricter rules to ensure all 100% of the animals used in research aren’t mistreated. There is also the animal liberation movement. It is a group of associations who seek an end to the rigid moral and legal distinctions between animals and humans. With your help, the government could listen to this movement and put their arguments to use by making them into policies laboratories must follow. Our government could eventually make them into laws to make sure laboratories respect them fully.

In the U.S., millions of animals are used in testing, and are in constant torture each day. Since 94% of cures found with animals do not work with humans I think it is a waste of lives and resources. I do not think humans should benefit from products made through the suffering of other living creatures. This issue is important, because millions of animals are in ceaseless pain both emotionally and physically to produce just one successful product. I ask you as our future president, to care about the lives of every living creature, to give animals the rights they are justified to have. Their only protection right now are some picayune laws, I hope that you can strengthen and enforce them so animals can officially have rights. We are both living, we both breathe the same air, and we all have the ability to feel both joy and pain. So why can’t we all have rights?

Sincerely,

Lenaig