Animal Rights The amount of heed to be given regarding the rights of animals has remained to be a heated argument these past few years due to the new, innovative ways of people and their treatment of animals in various situations. The most common concern of those worried about animals is the method of scientists to test products on animals to see how successful they are and whether the products may potentially cause harm to humans if they use them.

Animal testing has numerous categories. While a few scientists make use of animals for medicinal experiments, others may use it to test the safety of cosmetics and other products for human use. The key factor due to which this argument has still gone on is the constant questioning as to why one should care about animals and the danger to them when we test products on them. A common misconception has also successfully spread amongst people that after animals are tested; they can easily be placed back into their natural habitat, or be adopted by anyone willing to do so. However, the reality is entirely different from this misconception.

Although it is still not confirmed, some studies do show that animals have emotions and feelings. They can feel happiness and sorrow, health and pain. Therefore, testing potential products on animals such as rabbits and mice is a huge trial for them. Reports on the whole process of animal testing show that items are applied on such animals as needed to ensure that the chemicals in it do not produce a damaging effect to the skin and eyes and also to check if there is any side effect by long-term use. In the process however, a lot of animals upon whom testing is done, suffer pain, discomfort and at times, die because of the strength of the products being tested. Such cruelty brings forth a multitude of reactions by people who are aware of this issue. (Judson)

The first argument for those who do not pay heed to this issue is that it does not matter if animals are tested this way and are put in pain. This is rather a cold outlook towards the suffering of animal beings. There are several pros and cons to animal testing which various writers have put forth as the opinions of the general public.

The deceiving part about this issue is the category of 'pros' of animal rights. The greatest advantage of testing products on animals is the fact it saves innumerable human lives. This factor is wider than it apparently seems. First of all, people are saved of the possible damages that a product can do while it is still incomplete and to prevent this from happening, the chemicals are tested on animals. Because animals react to chemicals similarly to humans, it is a very convenient method of discovering any problems before introducing it formally to people so that they may use it. While testing directly on people would be unacceptable and very dangerous and also illegal in a lot of cases, animals can be used with ease and their reactions can be recorded. With these records, it is possible to improve the products and minus all the shortcomings and potential damages and create a product that is safe to use. Today, it is rather a consolation to see an interesting product labeled 'Tested on Animals' as it is a confirmation that all the horrible consequences of using a product will not be faced such skin irritation, inflammation etcetera.

Moreover, animal testing saves lives of thousands of people because many brilliant discoveries such as insulin, antibiotics and vaccines, were found because of the ability to test them without causing harm to people already suffering from diseases. Therefore it...

(Yaari)
The other side of animal testing however is that animals too have feelings and when products are tested on them, their well being is put at stake and they have to suffer as a consequence for the sake of human lives. It implies that human life is more important than animal life; however such a mindset is entirely unethical to have.

Animals are tested for a wide range of products, from toothpaste to detergents to makeup and medicine as well. In the process, thousands of animals damage their skin, eyes, and internal organs and if not euthanized, suffer like this until they die naturally with time. Reports show that these unfortunate animals are locked in body restraining harnesses which make them unable to move and then drops of products are put into their eyes and body to test whether or not they react with irritation, bleeding, ulcers, inflammations etcetera. During the process, numerous animals die, or are put to death as well to prevent them from suffering.

One major issue is that most of the time, scientists test products on animals that they know people will never end up using, nor will their endeavor of discovering something while they are at it be successful. Regardless, they put thousands of animals through pain, all in vain for a cause that has no backing and no use to make a successful product. (Bekoff)

While some uses of testing on animals are justified such as those related to the field of medicine because they save human lives, most of the other uses have no reason. The most horrible of such testings is the one for cosmetics. Cosmetic products are one of the most high in demand products today, however many animals' lives are put at stake just for the sake of looking beautiful. One renowned test done to ensure a cosmetic product is safe to use is the Draize Test, in which substances are put into the eyes of rabbits and then the damage done to the eye tissue is observed. As easy it may sound, during the process, rabbits can even go blind! (Carbone )

It is hard to understand why companies still continue to test their cosmetic products when there are new ways of test substances to ensure their safety. Companies such as Avon and The Body Shop claim to use skin tissue and cell cultures to evaluate whether their products are safe. Other methods include testing on corneas that come from eye banks alongside computer and mathematical models.

An amazing discovery in the recent years is bioprinting. Discussed in the American Associate for the Advancement of Sciences, mainly discovered to help patients who get burned, bioprinting is a method that enables a scanning device to measure how much skin is needed and then the bioprinter makes cells of the likelihood of human skin. This method is still under the pipeline and is being developed for complete efficiency. However, once it is well developed, scientists should reduce their tests on animals directly by bioprinting human cells and testing their products on such skin cells that would react to toxicity just the way animals and humans would. (Mironov)

Studies also show that animal testing for cosmetic products is not the most effective method of ensuring that a product is safe because it only tests the toxicity of substances rather than the potential health hazards that humans can face. Therefore, animal testing is again not justified.

A surprising report shows that animal testing for numerous products is ineffective and only causes pain to the animals because although the animal body and human self is extremely similar in many ways, they are not completely the same and therefore, not all animals may show reactions to substances as severely as the human body may potentially react. This may also be caused by the fact that the animals are stripped of their natural habitat and therefore, under such a situation, will not react…