RAB Proposal Paragraph – Jazmine Saldana

My research question is: What are the alternatives to animal testing, and how effective are they in comparison? This topic interests me because throughout the years I’ve owned and raised a multitude of pets including turtles, birds, fish, cats, a rabbit, and three dogs. I can’t bare the thought of any animal being used as an involuntary test subject to potentially harmful substances. Unlike humans, animals cannot advocate for themselves verbally, why should they serve as test subjects for products and vaccines? Is this morally acceptable because it might ensure our safety? Just because they aren’t human is it justified to cause life threatening trauma to them? Subjecting innocent animals to experimental products and treatments brings to question our morality. I have previously looked into this topic and know that these experiments aren’t just physically harmful, these animals undergo very extreme levels of stress that causes them to rip out there own fur, bite themselves, refuse food, resort to aggression, and in extreme cases, they refuse to move. There are many alternatives that include in Vitro testing, Advance imaging techniques, Organs-on-chips, Stem cell research, etc. These alternatives also prove to be more beneficial by providing consistent and faster results and in most cases are less expensive.

In this proposal I will address the scientific and ethical advantages as well as the disadvantages to all other alternatives of animal testing. My research seeks to provide a replacement or reduction in animal testing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/learning/is-animal-testing-ever-justified.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/health/drug-animals-testing.html?searchResultPosition=1

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/learning/what-is-our-responsibility-to-lab-animals.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/science/what-do-we-owe-lab-animals.html