Did you know more than 115 million animals are used, abused, and killed worldwide annually for scientific experiments? Animal cruelty has been going on since people can remember and is still being done constantly. Animal cruelty can be anywhere from preventing an animal from not having food, water, shelter, or veterinary care to torturing, maiming, killing, and abusing an animal sexually. Animal cruelty should be stopped because the cruelty in animal testing is inhumane and most importantly we need to provide safety for animals due to their incapability of defense.

Animal cruelty should be put to an end because the abuse in animal testing is inhumane. A report called “Animal Testing Facts and Statistics” by the PETA staff (2023), states, “Before their deaths, some are forced to inhale toxic fumes, others are immobilized in restraint devices for hours, some have holes drilled into their skulls, and others have their skin burned off or their spinal cords crushed.” This evidence proves the brutality and barbaric things that animals have to go through. Picture more than 110 million animals including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds are killed in laboratories for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing each year. Not only do animals suffer from physical abuse but they also suffer from mental problems. An article called “Post-Traumatic Stress in Animals” by Danielle Rousseau (2019), states, “…animals can indeed suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress just like humans.” PTSD is an anxiety disorder that results from trauma. Some symptoms of PTSD are flashbacks, nightmares, hostility, difficulty sleeping, etc. Imagine the horrible things animals physically have to go through and on top of that having to relive it in their mind over and over again. With this said I believe animal cruelty should be stopped.

The most important reason why animal cruelty should be stopped is because we need to provide safety for animals due to their incapability of defense. A report called “They Can Think, Feel Pain, Love. Isn’t It Time Animals Had Rights?” by Martha Nussbaum (2023), states, “But somehow humans find ways of “forgetting” what the science of the past has plainly revealed, and for many centuries most people, including most philosophers, thought animals were “brute beasts,” automata without a subjective sense of the world, without emotions, without society, and perhaps even without the feeling of pain.” Humans forget that animals have rights, feelings, and emotions too. Putting a “brute beast” in a cage is not much different from placing a rock in a terrarium, at least on the surface. However, the reality is far from that. We are preventing the very life of intelligent and highly responsive creatures. These animals should be given a life with growth and happiness, but just because they don’t have the ability to communicate with us and defend themselves from us, they get extremely poorly treated. Even some laws don’t protect animals. An article called “Animal Cruelty” by Kelly Dedel (2022), says, “…hunting is exempted from animal cruelty laws and livestock are not protected, even though in both cases the animals are killed and quite often suffer. Laws in some states protect wild animals from frivolous harm ("thrill killing"), although most animal cruelty laws are designed to only protect "companion animals" or pets.” Nowadays, the meat industry treats animals solely as a source of meat. These animals are raised in dreadful conditions, kept in small spaces, and separated from others until they pass away without ever experiencing a decent life. Even wild animals can’t live peacefully without getting hunted by humans. This is why we need to provide safety for animals.

Some make the argument that animals are the appropriate research subjects because they are similar to humans in many ways. A report by Stanford Medicine states, “Animals are biologically very similar to humans. Mice share more than 98% of DNA with us. Animals are susceptible to many of the same health problems as humans – cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc.” This proves that animals are crucial in assisting scientists to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of new drugs and medical treatments, as well as in pinpointing any negative side effects like infertility, birth defects, liver damage, toxicity, or cancer risks. However, this argument is invalid because animal tests are not always accurate in predicting outcomes for humans. An article called “Animal Testing” by ProCon, says, “94% of drugs that pass animal tests fail in human clinical trials. Over 100 stroke drugs and over 85 HIV vaccines failed in humans after succeeding in animal trials.” This shows that even though animals can be similar to humans, there will always be a difference between the two that can cause big problems.

Animal abuse needs to be put to an end because the mistreatment of animals during experiments is cruel, and we must ensure the protection of animals since they are unable to protect themselves. If we don’t help animals out, they might never get justice for all the pain and suffering they have been through and might end up extinct. To prevent this from happening adopt an animal, donate to a shelter or an organization that helps animals, and you can even look around your neighborhood to see if there is any weird behavior that can save an animal’s life. This is why I believe animal cruelty should be put to an end.