But what is the exact meaning of animal testing? Whether it is called animal testing, animal experimentation or animal research, it refers to the experimentation or research carried out on animals. Hajar (2011, p. 42) stated that early Greek physician-scientists, such as Aristotle, (384 – 322 BC) and Erasistratus, (304 – 258 BC), performed experiments on living animals. A study by National Research Council (2004, p. 21) found that the incident that happened in 1933, where “more than a dozen women were blinded and one woman died from using a permanent mascara called Lash Lure” marks the start of using animals as a tool for experimenting products. This has proven that for centuries, animals have been used as a test for medical and scientific investigations in the laboratories. It was reported that each year, more than 100 million animals, such as mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pig, cats, dogs, and birds are killed in the United States (United States Department of Agriculture, 2017). According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Organization (PETA), these animals were killed for the purpose of biology lessons, experiments conducted by curious scientists and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing (n.d.). They were forced to inhale toxic fumes, some had their skulls being drilled to create holes, spinal cords crushed, others being …show more content…
Unlike those animals, we were gifted by God with a brain to think which is right and wrong and start to educate people around us. Animal testing needs to be banned immediately and animals should be treated equally like us human beings. Despite that, there still exist some scientists that think animals do not feel any pain or the pain felt by animals held no significance as they are incapable of expressing it in our language (Tannenbaum, 1999, p. 97-110). In the future, I hope cases of animal testing would show a decline across the world and people realizing how important these animals are in maintaining the balance of our ecosystem. The government should also take actions in strengthening the Animal Welfare Act as Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are