Animal Testing Research Paper

Words: 1260
Pages: 6

Animals play a vital and crucial role in our society, and have been used by humans for hundreds of thousands of years. Whether it is for food, clothing, or research, animals are used for a variety of purposes and are considered to be an important aspect to the livelihood of human beings. However, animal ethics is an issue that has been debated between individuals, especially between philosophers. The moral status of animals is extremely controversial and is usually divided into two group: those who believe humans shall use animals however they want, and those who believe that animals deserve moral and equal consideration. I am in completely agreement with the utilitarian approach to animal rights, stating that all nonhuman animals are well …show more content…
Whether it is from applying cosmetics to their fur or injecting chemicals into their skins, these invasive procedures are abusive and often cause mental and physical anguish. Animal testing should be terminated because animals have the capacity to feel pain and suffering in the same way humans feel pain and suffering. For instance, if I were to accidentally step on an individual’s hand, that individual would express their pain vocally and would move their hand away as a reflex. At the same time, if I were to accidentally step on my dog’s paw, my dog would react in a similar way, yelping and moving his paw away frantically. Both the person and the dog have similar responses to the pain, making the dog equally qualified as the human to have the right not to face pain or torture. In support of this statement, Singer stated, “No matter what nature of the being, the principles of equality required that its suffering be counted equally with the like suffering, of any other being” (Singer 75). In other words, Singer believed all beings, on a universal level, have interests, desires, emotions, and can experience joy or pain. Because animals can experience feelings, then their lives are either going really well or really bad for them. Therefore, the fact that they can experience feelings and emotions make them well deserving to have moral consideration. To say that animals deserve moral consideration …show more content…
For instance, it is completely biased when we have canines as pets in our homes, treating the animal with love and kindness, while having a whole pork loin roast for dinner. Nothing made the canine worthier of living or being loved, other than the bias people have towards different species of animals. Many believe that canines are more useful as pets and companions, rather than food. Therefore, the thought of eating dogs disgusts humans, because social customs within the American society have normalized consuming pigs rather than dogs. However, both pigs and dogs deserve the same amounts of rights not to be eaten, even though our biases lead us to pick one species over the other. Supporting this statement, Singer claims “The species allows the interests of his own species to override the greater interests of members of other species” (Singer 75). In other words, by favoring one species over another, this will lead humans to devalue precious lives of sentient animals who are well deserving of morals and equality. It is then reasonable to conclude that this this ‘speciesism’ is discriminatory behavior, since we disregard the suffering of a being due to its species. Being discriminatory towards any being, whether human or animal, is unethical and immoral to practice. Therefore, animals deserve to not be exploited by being killed for food or clothing, because it is not morally