Grade 9 Chairman’s Cup Final-Should Animal Testing be allowed

Once the participants were selected based on previous rounds of Chairman’s cup, the final round was held on 8^th October. The topic was a thought-provoking one-‘Should animal testing be allowed?’ 

 We often read about animal testing in newspapers and magazines, but what exactly is it?  Animal testing is the use of non-human animals to assess the safety and effectiveness of everything from medication to cosmetics, as well as understanding how the human body works.

Students who were pitted against the topic believed the threats of animal testing outweigh any resultant benefit as the results are often unreliable. Animals are an easy target for human beings. But taking advantage of their helplessness creates various other problems.  Mahatma Gandhi once said ‘To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body’. Not only are we violating the very rights of animals, but animal testing has proven to be futile as various animals don’t have the same body system as human beings. It has been proven that 92% of experimental tests that have worked on animals have failed in human clinical trials.

On the other hand, those against the topic stressed that with vast technological advances, there exist more effective and human methods for experimentation that do not involve animal testing and are more reliable. Also, they emphasized the importance of animal research for many of our scientists working to beat cancer. Animal testing is bounded by strict laws that ensure that animal testing is done humanely and only used when there is absolutely no other alternative.

Animal research has established its position in the world by aiding scientists to find the breast cancer drug, Tamifoxen, which is arguably the most important cancer drug. Animals that are used in laboratories are specifically bred for this purpose and are treated humanely. 61% of the animals suffer absolutely no pain. 31% of the animals have pain relieved with anaesthesia, while 6% do feel pain which is outweighed by the positive results of animal testing. Also, it is prohibited to use endangered species for experimental purposes.

Therefore we can say that animal testing will always have its merits and demerits. If the experiment fails, the immense pain suffered by the animal would be in vain. But, we must also remember that if animal testing didn’t exist, we wouldn’t have developed many of the cures that are widely used today to treat a variety of illnesses. The products we use in our daily lives will cease to exist. But regardless of what the situation may be, the way forward lies entirely in our hands. It is after all common knowledge that ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’.

-Sahithi Polisetty