The Advantages of Animal Testing

Animal testing has been a very controversial topic for decades, as laboratories, businesses and pharmaceutical companies have often had to endure heavy criticism from activists. The outcry involved these companies using animals in experiments as various products, drugs and psychological hypotheses were tested. However, while sometimes frowned upon, there's no denying that animal testing has some distinct advantages that may prove beneficial in the long run.

Pharmaceutical Advancements

• Animal testing has allowed for the advancement of many modern life-saving drugs. For example, were it not for animal testing, curing polio may have been an impossible task. Monkeys and rabbits, in particular, display biological processes very similar to human beings, making them ideal for testing new drugs that could potentially save lives.

Inexpensive

• Animal testing, particularly with rats and mice, is very cheap. Rats and mice breed very quickly, meaning that supplies can be replenished quickly. More research can be done and at less expense than testing with humans, who may not only be in danger but would probably need to be highly compensated. The more research that can be done in the shorter amount of time means that new drugs to treat more diseases can be produced more rapidly, once again potentially saving lives.

Lack of Alternative

• There's no getting around the fact that, if not for modern pharmaceuticals and medical research, humans would not be as healthy as they are today. In fact, lifespans would be shorter and the human body would be more prone to deadly diseases and conditions that otherwise would be treated or cured with drugs. If not for animal testing, then the only other alternative would be human testing, which would be very dangerous, especially when studying deadly diseases.

Psychological Testing

• Experimenting on animals in place of human patients eliminates the need to submit humans to psychological trauma. For example, one study places rats in two environments: In one, they are exposed to other rats; in the other, they live solitary lives. It was found that the rats that grew up in a solitary environment developed smaller brains than those that lived with a social group. It's these type of experiments that would be impossible to perform with humans without it being detrimental to their health and stability.