The concept that we are all born with inherent rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is fundamental to our society, particularly to the ideas expressed in the United States Constitution. However, humanity thoughtlessly demeans this principle by denying that animals share these rights. Animals are just as entitled to the rights of living, avoiding pain, and pursuing happiness as humans are. Yet still we exploit and abuse them mercilessly, most often without a second thought. Vivisection, or the use of animals in biomedical research, dissection, testing and education, deprives animals of their natural rights and is a great injustice. I believe that this is completely unacceptable, and we should find more humane as well as more effective alternatives immediately. Despite the wide use of animal testing, the research obtained from it is not even of much help to us. The chemicals and medicines we test on animals reacts differently on every species. In fact, it has been proven that no two species even metabolize any given drug in the same way. Results gained from animal testing can be incorrect and misleading. In many cases, not only are the results wrong, but the opposite can be true for humans; a drug may cure a disease in lab animals but have an adverse effect when used in treating people for the same symptoms. Thus, such research is not only irrelevant when applied to humans, but can also be dangerous by providing a false sense of security. Only the study of human patients will ultimately lead to valid research. Vivisection reduces sentient beings to the status of tools, to be used for the benefit of others and disposed of. Animal testing is also incomprehensibly cruel, which cannot be justified by the results gained through its use, no matter how valuable. Furthermore, the tests done on animals are seldom of any real benefit; results are almost characteristically useless or even misleading when appli...
