Some believe that the testing of medical drugs on animals is necessary for human welfare, while others disagree, suggesting that it should not be regarded as a normal practice. Although I understand that the animals’ rights should be preserved equally to humans, there is still a necessity to test new pills on species before introducing them to the public.
The use of animals for people’s own needs may seem unfair toward animals. Everytime they are used them in drug experiments, they might suffer from long-term effects of drugs on their health, some even lead to severe illnesses. Rabbits and mice are the best examples of this case, researchers usually choose these animals for conducting studies, therefore they are in the list of endangered species now. Take the situation of the pill testing failure in the UK. Chronic pain is witnessed in some rabbits’ life after they took new medication, and some of them even could not move because of a single laboratory experiment.
However, with the preservation of thousands of lives due to successful pill tests, the negative sides of this trend are overshadowed. For medical research, scientists specifically choose smaller animals that are not extinct in the nature, therefore no need for concerns about animal population decline. Sacrificing one small animal seems more reasonable rather than risking several individuals. For example, vaccines are also tested on animals first to make sure that they will not have any impacts on people.
To conclude, while the studies of drugs might be dangerous for animal welfare since they may result in worsened health conditions, I contend that the animals are the most reliable and safest way of testing medications for humanity.