Speech on Animal Testing

Good afternoon, animal testing and research is very regulated due to the laws put in place to ensure that animals aren't mistreated. The Federal Animal Welfare Act requires regular inspections by veterinarians along with minimum housing standards for animal analysis (enclosure size, temperature, access to clean food and water, and others). Nearly every medical breakthrough (according to the California biomedical research association) in the past 100 years has been a result of direct research using animals. The use of animals for testing is crucial to ensure that vaccines and medicine are safe for both us and animals themselves.

Vaccines and other forms of testing that are performed have saved millions of animals that would have otherwise died. Most animals in testing labs are bred with a specific purpose of being tested on, this means that perfectly healthy animals are not being taken and tested on for no good reason. Studying and research can be extremely expensive, so unless the public is willing to donate that kind of money towards other forms of tests, animals are our safest option as they are most similar to humans internally meaning they have the most accurate results in terms of vaccines and medicine. If we can't test on animals, who/ what are we to test on?

Animals are most similar to humans in many ways meaning they have the most accurate results in terms of vaccines and medicine. Animals do not have the same moral judgment as humans do, because of this they are treated differently. Animals have a right to not be treated cruelly, so as long as the people testing on animals are following the laws and protocols put in place, the animals won't be treated badly. These tests aren't carried out with the intent of killing or torturing the animals, it is simply to help both them and the human race.  We understand that not all animals are treated well. With work though, we can make sure that animals who are subjects of scientific research will be treated fairly.