Animal testing has been going on since the late nineteenth century. Over the years, billions of animals have been killed from experiments, but the amount of animals tested on has fallen 50% since 1968 and in 1998 reached a 40 year low of only 2.66 million procedures. With that much of a decline, its unimaginable how many animals were once used and for what purposes. Even with the 50% decline, the number of animals sacrificed for medical and biomedical ends in the United States each year is unknown, but certainly exceeds 60 million and may possibly be as high as 100 million. The amount of animals sacrificed each year is horrible especially when a lot of the test turn out to be inaccurate. For many centuries scientists and testers in research have used animals of all kinds. Most of the animals are small ones like rodents - rats, mice, hamsters and gerbils. Some dogs, cats and a variety of goats, monkeys and rabbits have also been used. "Of animals currently being used today, about 80% of these are rats and mice, and less than 3% are cats and dogs while non-human primates account for 2%" ( ). .
The animal rights issue is an emotional one. For decades the value of animal research has been grossly overrated. Many corporations test on animals, but probably the largest is Proctor & Gamble. People may think they aren"t contributing to the torture of animals, but Proctor & Gamble has over a hundred everyday products that were at one time tested on. Some of their man products consist of Old Spice, Secret and sure deodorants. "Testing cosmetics consist of placing rabbits in stocks that immobilize their heads and researchers dropping the substance into one eye, using the other as a control. The pain may be so great the rabbits break their backs trying to escape" ( ). In other experiments, "the animals may be force fed products or have them rubbed or injected into their skin" ( ). Forcing millions of animals to go through the trauma is definitely animal cruelty.