Animal Testing Should be Stopped, Student Says

To the Editor:

Depressed, trapped, lifeless—test needles in their skin every day. That’s an animal’s daily life when it is stuck in research laboratories of companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Bayer AG and Chattem Inc. You may know animals have tests happen to them every day and they are almost never safe. One of the obvious problems animals are facing is animal testing and, as we know, it needs to be stopped! We can all come together and realize the problems of animal life, safety and health. These are important factors in all of the animals’ lifetime because they are what keep animals alive.

Though we probably all agree animals should be safe, I do accept counter arguments on why they should not be safe and live fine. People say the tests are safe and do not hurt animals, but that is not true. Animals just get random drugs, needles and drills put into them. Tools are horrible, they are bloody and infect monkeys who get holes drilled into their skulls, which is probably the most unsafe test.

Animals should be free to live and not trapped in unsafe cages that rarely have air or light. Statistics state that 33 percent of animals die from safety issues. Safety issues are not even bad enough for the animals. Their lives and health in laboratories also are horrible and are the other causes of their deaths. Just on average, 8.5 million animals are killed by tests every year.

Although we do not think of animals as humane creatures, they are and we damage their health every year. Animals have their health severely damaged. Although people think that tests actually help many humans in finding cures or getting medicines, it does not. Therefore, damaging the health of animals for no reason makes your plain evil. You sacrifice a life full of health and turn it into a life full of death and misery.

One of the horrible tests that affects a specific animal, mice, is excellent but horrible at the same time. It is “helping cancer” pills, which are unhealthy for the mice. I will give the straight answer—it makes mice grow tumors as large as their own bodies.

Many people care about our lives but do not care about animals’ lives, especially those in laboratories. Have you ever heard of the Holocaust and the manslaughter of all the Jews? Well, look ahead, animal tests are the same. It is manslaughter of many animals nonstop for around a century; animal testing is the holocaust for animals. People say that animals have a perfectly fine life. Though that is wrong, animals get their lives destroyed in tests. They are being tortured and are ripped from their families. For example, the chimps that put up a fight, kill many catchers, and try to stop the catchers but fail. Seventy-seven percent of the monkeys are killed in these senseless tests. These reasons all prove why we shouldn’t test on animals.

Now we can all help and come together to stop these horrible tests. With our help, animals worldwide will live good lives that are safe and healthy. People do not believe that it is bad and should stop, and I accept that. I will try my best to stop it myself though. It is your choice to decide if all animals being tested should live or die, but choose what you know is right, not what’s “cool.”   

Just think, would you want to be depressed, sad, and lifeless—with needles injected into your body every day until you die?

Sincerely,

Dylan Glassberg

Sixth Grade

Hillside Intermediate School