Essay/Term paper: Animal cruelty

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Science Research Papers

Animal Cruelty


The topic of animal cruelty is one of great importance to the wold today. Why
we humans have the right reserved to treat animals as lesser individuals is
beyond me. Animals are fulfilling their part in the ecosystems and communities
of the earth, and to the best extent that they are able. For example, a spider
is being the best possible spider that it can be, spinning webs and working
diligently at what it knows best, not bothering any creatures of the earth
besides the ones which it needs to capture for food. We, as humans, decided that
we are a much advanced life form and can basically treat anything else in this
world in ways which we cannot imagine being treated. As a result the threads
holding our earth together tightly in the balance are being slowly unraveled to
lead into ultimate self-destruction.

In 1988, 16, 989 animals died in laboratories in the United Kingdom. This was
due to such tests as acute and chronic toxicity experiments, where the animals
are forced to consume substances such as perfume, make-up and other beauty
products and are often literally poisoned, their systems literally overloaded by
the substance in question. Another testing method is the Lethal Dose 50 percent
test or LD50. In this procedure at least half of the animals must die in order
for the government to figure out how much a human can ingest without dying.

In one such test some animals were fed 4. lb. of lipstick and one ended up
dying of intestinal obstruction. In another, 7 pints of melted eye shadow was
fed to rats. In yet another, mice were wrapped in tin foil and grilled in
ultraviolet light to test a sun block cream for a total of 96 hours. The results
of the test were that the longer the mice stayed in the rays, the more sunburnt
they got.

But that is not all. A wax product used in many cosmetics was dosed into
animals by a stomach tube. The amount that they used is equivalent to feeding 1 «
lb of the stuff to humans. The animals involved soon began salivating, bleeding
from the nose and mouth, and had extreme diarrhoea. As the test progressed some
more, the animals became emaciated and unkempt, had congestion in the lungs and
kidneys and solid wax in the stomach.

The infamous Draize eye test cannot be forgotten either. Chemicals are
instilled into the eyes of rabbits in stocks, often for up to seven days. And
because their eyes are physiologically different from ours, they cannot produce
enough tears to wash the substance away and it remains there for long periods of
time. Unfortunately for them, rabbits are cheap and simple to maintain, and they
also have large eyes.

In the acute inhalation test the animals are subjected to intense amounts of a
certain substance or toxin in a small caged environment for four days to test
the effects of chemical inhalants used in aerosol spray cans and other gaseous
materials. The animals which actually survive the test are then killed to be
examined. This is also done with tobacco products and alcohol.

Another instance included the removal of infant rhesus monkeys from their
mothers at birth and isolated or given cheap substitutes to study the need for a
maternal figure early on in life. After 4 months some of the babies were able to
integrate back into a normal monkey society, the ones isolated for a year or
more had definite social problems.

To attempt to find more out about our sexuality we of course turn to cats.
After some nerve surgery, the cats involved became disoriented and lost interest
in sexual activity.

There was also the dastardly one in which some silly scientist removed a cat's
brain to see if it could still walk afterwards.

Vivisection is of course the live dissection of animals for scientific
research, and is quite widespread in use today. Most of these are performed
without the use of anaesthetics.

The ironic thing regarding this entire situation is the fact that animals, for
the most part, have a very different body chemistry than us, and, as a whole,
are very different than us. So basically none of these tests has any relevancy
for us today. As well, there is a widespread range of natural products already
available to us which most scientists and doctors refuse to acknowledge because
there is more money in animal research. This is sadistic and wrong. Some
governments are pushing for mandatory animal testing on all products, even
completely safe products like honey. This is quite unnecessary for the survival
of humans. Not to mention the countless numbers of animals which have been
injected with infectious diseases so that they can be researched.

There have been some breakthroughs in the use of human tissue culture in
various experiments, but of course it is not as good as the real thing.

The destruction of so many animals with such harmful products is not exactly
healthy for our earth either. There is really no safe to dispose of a noxious
dead body. How unsafe and unreal.

As well there are more frightening prospects. All a company has to do to sell
a "cruelty- free" product is to not have tested it within the past 5 years. This
means that in reality products could be tested now and be on the market in 5
years. How frightening!

Once again, this is unusual and unnecessary with all of what the earth has
already provided for us, the healing plants, most of which we are destroying
with the clear cut and pollution problems experienced within the past century or
so. What a huge power trip these scientists must be on to have thousands of
animals lives hanging in the balance at their command every day. What a complete
act of superiority. With so many other options, don't you think that the
situation would lessen or differ somewhat? No, of course not. Humans are always
looking for the easy way out of situations, and if that means torturing innocent
and helpless animals, then so be it. I am personally against this mode of action.


Bibliography:

Lorraine Kay,"Living without cruelty," Sidgwick and Jackson press, London, 1990.

J. J. McCoy,"Animals in research; Issues in conflict," Impact press, U.S.A.,
1993.

Lynda Dickinson,"Victims of vanity," Summerhill press, Canada, 1989.

B.P. Robert Stephen Silverman,"Defending animals' rights is the right thing to
do," S.p.i. books, U.S.A.,1992.

Kathy Snow Guillermo,"Monkey business," National press books, U.S.A., 1993.