Animal Research
...now it can sometimes be impossible. His last question was, “ knowing how hard it is to get an animal to take medication that would help it, why would you try to force something on the animal that would very well harm or even kill it?” To me, this just doesn’t sound like the right thing to do. As I was reading over the Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Animals, I found many things that were a little disturbing to me. Many of the guidelines refer to having the animals euthanized . The quote by Steven Spielberg is true. These animals are dying for as far as I am concerned, no reason. Another point that was made in the Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Animals is in section five of the guidelines referring to the experimental procedures. One I thought was really funny stated that “ psychologists are encouraged to test painful stimuli on themselves, whenever reasonable.” The way I read that is if it’s to painful for a human it’s all right to harm animals. Do animals not feel that pain too? I think they do. In the same section of the guidelines, it also says that “adverse stimulation, that is not relieved by medication is all right.” Again that does not sound right to me. Now in an article written by the APA Board of Scientific Affairs give some good reasons for animal research. Animal research has brought a better understanding to many illnesses and injuries that affect people today. The research has helped us to understand how the nervous system works. It has also helped to understand and treat memory disorders and drug addictions. The APA Board of Scientific Affairs states that only 7-8% of psychological research uses animals. They state 90% of the animals are rodents, mainly rats, mice, and pigeons. They state that only 5% are primates and monkeys. They also state that it is very rare to use cats and dogs in any kind of research. So what is my “official” position on this subject? I believe that although only 7-8% of research involves animals, that is 7-8% to many. With all the technological advances, there has to be another way to test and do research that will give the true results. My reasoning for this is very simple. My first reasoning is that animals feel pain too. Just because they can not talk and really defend themselves doesn’t mean i...