Over the years, animals have served an important role in determining the effectiveness and safety of vaccines, medicines, and consumer products. By utilizing animals for scientific medical research, a great strides have been arisen in healthcare. However, the wellbeing of these laboratory animals may be in jeopardy as the result of experimentations. To minimize any suffering, animal welfare laws and policies have been established. These regulations mandate that any discomfort and pain should be avoided, if unavoidable then it should be limited which is necessary to conduct the research successfully. Unfortunately, pain and distress are still all too familiar for these creatures. Although animal testing has proven beneficial to mankind, many individuals continue to question the ethicality of the practice. The objective of this paper is to discuss the pros and cons that presently exist and provide a vision for the future of animal testing, which includes the use of alternate methods.
The rights of animals and their use in biomedical research have been controversial topics with huge societal implications over an extensive period of time (Gannon, 2007). Many animal rights activists claim that all research involving animals should be abolished (Gannon, 2007). On the other hand, countless scientists insist that some experiments require the use of animals and any eliminating or regulating animal testing would impede on their research and they would not successful investigate the effect of drugs if abolish the animal testing (Gannon, 2007). Furthermore, It has been estimated nearly 100-150 million vertebrate animals, including mice, rats, birds, fish, rabbits, guinea pigs, farm animals, dogs, cats, and nonhuman primates, are used in animal testing annually worldwide ("Soundearth.com," 2010). These animals are used in an effort to test for the safety and efficacy of products for humans.