Animal Testing And Experimentation Essay (Pros and Cons)

Animal testing and experimentation was not something that I knew about nor something that is really talked about and discussed between people. I recalled that some of my cosmetic products would have the bunny logo on them or say this product did not test on animals but that was pretty much all I knew. I never thought about what exactly animal testing entailed, I thought maybe it meant they put a swatch of eyeshadow on the rat's skin to see how the color looked, or they gave the animal a pill to see the reactions. What I didn't know was the amount of pain and suffering millions of animals go through on a day- to -day basis, for the needs of humans. As time went on in this unit, I started to realize how controversial animal testing and experimentation is in this world and how everyone has different perspectives and views, it is a much deeper issue than it may seem. Personally, my viewpoint changed from the beginning of my research to the end. As well, it opened up my perspective to learn and research new things that I otherwise would have never cared about, it challenged me to look past the media and dive into the facts. After learning more about animal testing it became something I was passionate about. It is not something widely talked about, and therefore I found it easy to write and develop my view because I felt it was something that needed more attention, and I felt very strongly about it.

When I started my writing I was torn between the different perspectives and points of view. I had read articles from different scientists explaining how crucial and necessary it was. How if we didn't have animal testing there would be no cures for cancer, or other illnesses because we need animals to test out the products before we can administer them to humans. This struck a spot for me because I have 3 family members who have had cancer and 1 has died and so to me I felt like animal testing was needed to help create safe medicines, and without the testing, there would be no safe medications and people would be suffering. I imagined if there were no medicines to relieve their pain and how many people out there rely on these medicines for their day-to day- life. To me,it just seemed like people were being dramatic about animal testing and that it was safe and regulated, where the animals went through no harm. I was very sure about where I stood regarding the issue. I’ve always tended to be pretty closed-minded, and never quite looked for other possibilities or opinions. This semester has helped me to broaden my knowledge and always look for all facts before making a decision or opinion. After more time and research I started to come across animal cruelty websites. These websites emphasize the pain and the suffering that the animals experience and how they cannot consent to the experiments or communicate about how they are feeling or if there is pain. That's when my viewpoint started to change. Being a dog owner I pictured my dog  taken from my home, with nobody that she was familiar with, locked in a cage for days, and injected with different needles and medicines. Suffering and struggling, and we would never know because she isn’t able to communicate verbally with us. I remember thinking to myself is there a way people who are struggling can be relieved of pain and fixed, while not sacrificing the needs and rights of animals. Which clicked in my mind and led me to be more interested and curious as a writer. 

I expanded my voice as a writer by deciding my purpose for writing. My purpose was clear, to inform people about the harms and impacts, educate them about what animal testing really is, and  motivate them to help make a change. When I developed my purpose for writing it helped make my writing have meaning. In previous writing I would just write with no purpose or goals I was trying to achieve. Something that I had never really used before this semester was experimenting with different writing techniques, which helped push me out of my comfort zone. With each unit I was able to expand and develop different ways for writing, and finding what styles were best for getting different points across to the audience.  In particular, when writing my argumentative essay I found it easier to point across because there were so many feelings and emotions I had about the topic. The argumentative style allowed me to break the biased writing in a way that would help me achieve my purpose, and educate the readers.

A struggle that I faced while developing my writing was using my own words and not just quoting or stating facts to get the point across. I was focused on trying to establish credibility and persuade the audience that I wasn’t fully analyzing and diving deep into my own observations and thoughts.When I first started writing this semester I put too much emphasis on the facts and data, and I feel like that really took away from the personal aspect of the writing and made it seem like I was spitting facts to the readers and not engaging with them. Another struggle was more personal, I was very self critical and judgemental of my writing. I would write up a paragraph and shortly after delete it because it “ wasn’t good enough”, deleting one paragraph turned into deleting another and then before I knew it I had just deleted all of my writing. As I have developed my writing I learned to just write and see where it goes and where it takes me. After I finish all my writing I can go back and look over and decide what doesnt fit and make the needed adjustments. With the different techniques and writing styles that have been introduced to me I have found different options and I have more skills to be more confident when writing.