Animal Testing is used on an estimated 100 million animals annually ("U.S"). While this outdated form of testing has provided us with numerous medical advances in the past, it can often be inhumane and unnecessary. There are many alternatives to animal testing that are readily available for scientists and researchers to use, but despite the alternatives available to us, animal testing is continually employed as a major form in medical and cosmetic testing.

One might ask why this is such a big deal? The answer is that alternatives to animal testing not only save millions of lives, but they are also often more reliable and cost effective than using animals ("Alternatives").

Unfortunately, dishonorable motives are preventing animal replacements from being implemented. Animal testing is a multi-billion-dollar industry that researchers, breeders, suppliers, and pharmaceutical companies profit from and have financial motives to keep the practice running. In addition, scientists looking to  further their prestige in the scientific community, may use animals over certain alternatives due to the fact that an animal’s generation time is much shorter than humans, allowing them to produce faster results (even if those results may be less reliable) and publish papers quicker (“About”). Without adequate laws forcing researchers to take advantage of these non-animal substitutes, these alternatives are continually overlooked.

Right now, there is only one U.S. law that governs the use of animals in laboratories, The Animal Welfare Act. This act does not require that alternatives to animal testing be used if they are available but only require that alternatives be “considered” ("Animal Welfare"). Also, its protections specifically exclude rats, mice, birds and cold-blooded animals, which make up more than 95 percent of the animals used in laboratories ("Animal Testing"). My petition is aimed at bringing awareness to this issue so that we may enhance The Animal Welfare Act so that it becomes a requirement that alternatives to animal testing on all animal species be used in place of animals when they are available.

Please sign and share this petition with your friends and family to stop the unnecessary use of animals in testing situations where an often more reliable and cost effective alternative can be used in its place.

Sources

"About NAVS." http://www.navs.org.National Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

"Alternatives in Testing." Neavs.org. New England Anti-Vivisection Society, 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.

"Animal Testing Is Bad Science: Point/Counterpoint." PETA. People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

"Animal Welfare Act." Awionline.org. Animal Welfare Institute, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

"U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)." Peta.org. PETA, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2015.