I’m sure most of you who are reading this own pets that you care and love, or you just love animals in general like me. Imagine your beloved pet in a lab surrounded by other screeching animals who are terrified for their lives. Imagine your pet being constantly injected with harmful drugs, or a doctor forcing a feeding tube down their small throat, and treating them like worthless creatures by screaming and hitting animals who try to fight back. That’s not a happy thought to think about, but sadly, more then 100 million animals suffer and die in animal experiments. All they can do is sit and wait in fear of the next terrifying and painful procedure that will be performed on them. After enduring lives of pain, loneliness and terror, almost all of them will be killed. There’s a alternative to animal testing, but why do they still test on animals? Keep reading on to find out the positive sides to animal testing, and the negative sides to the topic.
Should Animal Experimentation Be Put To A Stop?
By: Selina De Santiago
In the article, “11 Facts about Animal Testing,” DoSomething.org informs readers the facts about animal experimentation, both good and bad. An example of a “good” fact is that “103,764 of the animals made to feel pain were not given anything to reduce their pain and suffering. Although some of this pain was slight—like getting an injection with a needle—some of it was extremely severe.” An example of a “bad” fact is “larger animals like dogs, cats, and primates usually live in wire cages. Most animals stay in their cages all the time except when they are being used in experiments.” By the balanced facts that are present in this webpage, DoSomething.org or whoever wrote this article has no opinion of the topic. No slant was discovered within the article. They “sugar-coated” some sad facts to make it sound more neutral then cruel. An example of this would be, “489,262 animals that were used in research in 2002 (not including mice, rats, and birds—no one knows how many of these animals are used in research) were used in research that was either painful, distressful, or both. Most of these animals were given something that either helped take the pain away or helped them get over the pain quickly.” Their choice of words had no emotion or feel, therefore the facts they presented were balanced out. At the bottom of the page, they have an “About Us” that you can read to learn more about the organization. Also on the side of the page they have related projects, and more topics that relates to animals. After reading the facts, they listed a source they used which was called APSCA, which stands for The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. What a coincidence! ASPCA is a trusted organization to millions that help out animals. Personally, I would trust DoSomething.org and ASPCA.org if I want to learn more about animal experimentation or to help out, ect.
In the article, “24 Facts – Animal Testing,” the user Minoesj informs their audience in their blog facts that strongly shows how useless animal testing is. By her blog, I can tell that she is against animal testing and there are a couple of slants shown in her page. For example, after the 24 facts, she lists a long list of companies that do not test on animals. Her caption is, “PLEASE SHOP & SUPPORT THIS LIST OF COMPANIES WHO DO NOT TEST ON ANIMALS.” Notice how she capitalizes the text and also bolds ‘Not test on animals’? Also, by the facts she presents, readers would believe animal testing is a bunch of (something you find in your toilet). An example of this is, “If we had relied on animal tests we would still believe that humans don’t need vitamin C, that smoking doesn’t cause cancer and alcohol doesn’t cause liver damage.” Obviously, that is not true! I wouldn’t exactly trust everything that is on the blog because there were no sources listed from where they got the facts from. Also there’s no background information to the site, animalrightscommunity.com, or information about the user who posted the blog. More research to the facts listed could help determine rather they are reliable or not.
In the page, “Animals Used for Experimentation,” PETA definitely persuades their either furry-loving or just regular people of the wrong doing in animal experimentation. PETA has a strong viewpoint that animal experimentation should be put to a stop, and by reading what they have said about it, it’ll convince you that it is. At the bottom of the page, they have a heartbreaking video that shows animal experimentation in action. The video is a great example of pathos, making you feel emotional and want to take action to stop animal testing. The sentences they use, such as, “To test cosmetics, household cleaners, and other consumer products, hundreds of thousands of animals are poisoned, blinded, and killed every year by cruel corporations”, will tug at your heart strings and make you imagine cute little bunnies being blinded or killed during tests. The article goes against the federal government, explaining how they use people’s tax money to test on animals. Slants and bias are everywhere on the page, because since they want you to be convinced that animal experimentation is wrong, they will take advantage of your emotions by writing about depressing things. The word choice they use like “forced”, “painful”, “suffer”, “cruel” and many more, persuades you to think what their view point is. PETA uses pathos throughout the webpage, so that you feel sorry for animals that are being tested on. PETA is a big source for animal lovers, because they are good at what they do by making their audience have emotion. On the side of the page, they list other articles relating to animal experimentation. I trust this website, despite the depressing videos they post. :(
Sources used: http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-animal-testing, http://www.animalrightscommunity.com/blogs/blog/animal-rights-bulletins/myspace-bulletins/2007/11/29/24-facts-animal-testing, http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/default.aspx
