Laboratories experiment on an estimated 26 million animals every year to determine whether commercial products and medications are safe for humans, a practice that many activists argue is inhumane and can be replaced by other testing methods. Here are the leading arguments for and against animal testing:
FOR:
- Animals cannot feel pain or experience fear
- Puts long-tailed macaques in their place
- Pretty much the only way to mutilate hamsters without seeming like psychopath
- Human race may live to see the final elimination of split ends and frizz
- Satiates scientists’ bloodlust and keeps them from going after humans
- No chance whatsoever that our present-day treatment of animals will be judged harshly by future generations
AGAINST:
- Animals do not always appreciate that they are part of something bigger than selves
- Alternative methods of testing do not demonstrate sexy shine of Summer Shimmer lip gloss in same way
- Kind of mean
- Testing cosmetics on animals creates unattainable standard of beauty for animals in control group
- These are animals we could be eating
- Knowledge that animals suffered in product testing can cause untold milliseconds of emotional distress for consumers
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