Imagine for a second that you are nestled in the corner of a metal box closed by bars, shivering. A strange man in a lab coat scoops you up and brings you to a cold table where you are held down. The man is holding a cotton swab in between his fingers and holds your eye lid open. The swab rubs over your eyeball, and it burns like fire. You start to struggle, but it's no use, his grip is much too strong. This may seem gruesome, but these sort of experiments are happening every day to 17,000,000 to 22,000,000 animals a year. These experiments are for mostly medical research and product testing, but sometimes products proven safe for animals are dangerous for humans. Animal experimentation is thought of by some as misdirected, inhumane, and abusive. Others believe that is a safer approach to test new health products. Animal experimentation is unfair, unnecessary, and cruel- or is it?.
To begin with, animal experiment are usually performed to test how safe products such as household cleaners, drugs, and cosmetics are. The tests are on different parts of the body to discover what the product may affect. The product is either inhaled, ingested, or tested through eye/skin contact. Three different species are used on each experiment, and the results vary depending on the gender, age, and the other factors of the animal. The effects of the drugs sometimes are not the same from specie to specie- including humans.
Next, all animals are unique, even if they share the same characteristics. Even though several species of animals are tested to find a variety of side effects, it is not possible to find exactly what will happen to a human with out actually testing on a human. Animal experimentation can be a very risky step of testing, because even if a product is found to be safe for an animal, it is very likely that it may be unsafe for a human. For example, in eye irritation testing, rabbits are commonly used.
