America lags behind in its treatment of animals 

Every year, more than 110 million animals are killed in U.S. laboratories from curiosity-driven experimentations, as well as chemical, drug, food and cosmetics testing, according to peta.com. Internationally, 42 countries have passed laws to limit or ban animal testing.

Unfortunately, America lags behind in its treatment of animals. There have only been five states that have banned animal testing or have made significant improvements in this area. I believe that animal testing should be banned and removed from all states in America.

According to peta.com, 52% of U.S. adults agree with me that animal testing is wrong. To be born into the world and to have a life with no freedom is worse than having no life at all. They have no chance to stop the pain or torment, simply because they are "just animals."

Although numerous large companies might believe that animal testing is essential for products to be declared safe for human use, that is entirely false. This type of testing is inaccurate because animals are not humans, and the products are meant for use by humans.

In the past, humans have been harmed from misleading animal testing results. Specifically, in the TGN 1412 trial, the animal toxicity studies were poor predictors of toxic effects of drugs in humans. These imprecise results exposed patients to unnecessary risk and wasted scarce research resources. The intended use of the drug was to treat B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia and rheumatoid arthritis. According to reliasmedia.com, this drug led to six men being hospitalized with one of them being pronounced brain dead. This was not the only time humans have been seriously injured during drug trials using drugs that had only been tested on animals; this type of scenario has occurred multiple times.

Another reason why I believe animal testing should be banned is because it is very expensive and takes away resources from human-based research that could actually be helping people. It is estimated that the National Institutes of Health spends on average $14.5 billion per year of taxpayer dollars on animal experimentation, according to Animal Legal Defense Fund. It generally costs an enormous amount of money because the animals must be fed, cared for, housed and treated with the drugs for the experiment. On top of just caring for them, the price for retrieving the animals must be paid as well. Surprisingly there are companies in the United States that breed animals specifically for testing and other companies may buy from them also.

Rather than using animals as test subjects, there are numerous alternatives. An example of a different method is the use of vitro testing. It consists of a scientist studying cells in a petri dish, which will produce more accurate results, as human cells are used for this method.

Another method is the use of artificial human skin. Scientists can use products from sheets of artificial skin instead of inserting poisonous chemicals into animal skin. This method can produce more relevant results as well.

Although we sometimes benefit from successful animal research, it is extremely unethical and cruel because of the physical and psychological harm it does to the animals. The results from the experimentations are unreliable because of how different each animal and the human body is. Finally, there are other methods scientists could use to their advantage. With these points made, it is clear that I strongly believe that there should be an instant ban on animal experimentation.

Opinion by Gurneet Kaur