Animal Testing Argumentative Essay

Most people are shocked to hear that the company conducts product tests on millions of animals each year, and hundreds of thousands of them are even injured or even killed. The issue of testing animals is urgent, because when making laws, companies will always find loopholes to test their products on animals, and conduct unethical testing for almost no reason. Ultimately, what is at stake here is innocent animals' lives for companies to have the reassurance that they can defend themselves against legal battles. If we want to defend animals, people have to create laws that make animal testing illegal and people have to start supporting cruelty-free companies. 

People need to be aware that animal abuse is very prevalent with company testing and will not go away unless we do something about it. Companies using animals to test their products has been a practice for a long time. Although recently the chances of companies being cruelty-free has gone up drastically, animals being used in business tests still happen to this day. According to an article written by PETA, “companies test on animals to provide data that they can use to defend themselves when they are sued by injured consumers—even though some courts have ruled that the FDA has failed to show that the results of animal tests can be extrapolated to humans”  (Why Do Companies Continue to Test Products on Animals?). In other words, companies defend testing their products on animals to help them with legal battles even though some courts believe that the outcome with testing with animas will most likely have different results if the same tests were conducted on humans. Although it is debatable whether it is or is not ethical to test products on animals, it is commonly known that tests harm the animals that are involved. The author of “Top Five Shocking Animal Experimentation Facts”, also comments on this when they write, “more than 100 million animals are poisoned, burned, crippled, and abused in other ways in U.S. labs each year.” and “ninety two percent of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they don’t work or are dangerous” (Top Five Shocking Animal Experimentation Facts). Basically, the author of “Why do companies continue to test products on animals?” and the author of “Top Five Shocking Animal Experimentation Facts” are saying that when companies decide to test out their products on animals those animals will most likely be treated unfairly and inhumane. All of this shows that animals that are tested on are being treated badly and deserve to live a happy life.

Overwhelming evidence proves that when companies test their products on animals, no good is going to happen. In the fast food industry, thousands of animals are harmed not just because they need their meat, but animals are also harmed during processes like transportation. According to Ronald Adams, the author of Fast Food and Animals Rights: An Examination and Assessment of the Industry’s Response to Social Pressure, “fast food chains have increasingly came under attack by animal rights organizations for the role they play in perpetuating animal abuse on factory farms: animals being genetically altered to increase size (i.e., yield), animals being unnaturally and inhumanely confined, animals are often subject to rough, abusive handling by employees, inhumane methods of euthenasia are often used during process and animals may be subject to painful mutilation to combat aggressive behaviors associated with unnatural confinement”  (Adams). Adams is insisting that it is common in the fast food industry for animals to be treated horribly for no apparent reason. Now, it is not only the fast food industry that often commonly abuses animals. The cosmetic industry is no stranger to using unethical tests on animals. Natcha Cole, author of Cruelty-Free Cosmetics 101, complicated matters even more when they write, “In these tests for cosmetic products, [animals] suffer through evaluations for skin irritation, eye irritation and any kind of toxicity. This in turn can cause severe damage to the animal, or worse—death. [...] Approximately 100,000-200,000 animals suffer and die every year in animal testing for cosmetics” (Cole). According to Ronald Adams and Natcha Cole, animals being tested on is not exclusively used in only one industry, animals are treated unfairly and the tests used on animals commonly results in a lot of animals passing away. These quotes illustrate the idea of animals being treated unfairly in the fast food and cosmetic industry.

People who believe that there is nothing you can do to stop animals being tested on probably do not know that supporting cruelty-free companies drastically helps lower the amount of animals being tested. More companies have decided to become cruelty-free because of the increase of public knowledge on how animals are being treated for unnecessary tests. In Natcha Cole’s opinion,  “as consumers, we have purchasing power and we can make a difference in the lives of innocent animals if we purchase in an informed and ethical way” (Cole). The point of Cole’s argument is to inform readers that they have all the power to support whatever company they want, and consumers should try and support companies that practice ethical testing and are cruelty-free. The most effective way for preventing companies is to create laws that criminalize the use of animal testing. According to Emily Ehrhorn, a senior media relations specialist for the Humane Society, “The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, a federal anti-cruelty bill, is now law. This animal protection measure sailed through the House of Representatives and the Senate with unanimous support and was just signed by the president” (Ehrhorn). Basically, Natcha Cole is saying that supporting cruelty-free companies is the best and most effective ways in preventing animal cruelty, whereas Emily Ehrhorn thinks that the government creating laws and making animal testing illegal is the most effective way in ending animal testing. Clearly, Cole and Ehrhorn show that there is not one solution in ending animal cruelty.

The best way to stop companies from using animals to test their products unethically is to support cruelty-free companies and to create laws that prevent companies from being able to legally test on animals. Overall, the fast food and cosmetic industry are two of the biggest industries that use a lot of animal testing. Companies testing on animals is unethical and morally wrong.