Imagine if humans were the ones being tested not animals, because we were not as “important” like the animals being tested on.  I don’t understand why it is okay to test on animals and not anything else.  Neverless, some reasons are that some drugs that seem safe in animals may not be in humans, there are other and better alternatives, and most of the time they do not work.  In addition, while some may say that animal testing is beneficial because it is not cruel that is incorrect because most animals after they are done being tested n are put down for no reason.  Those are a few reasons that animal testing is not needed and should be illegal.

My first reason is that drugs that seem safe in animals may not be in humans.  30% of drugs that are tested on animals are found to be toxic in humans (Wahlberg).  However, about 80% of experimental drugs fail human clinical trials because they are unsafe or ineffective (Wahlberg).  I think that if these drugs could be harmful to us, why would we take them.
Another reason is there are better alternatives than testing on animals.  UW-Madison got a 9 million dollars from NIH (National Institutes of Health) to create a better drug and chemical testing system (Wahlberg).  It is also cheaper, easier, and quicker to test drugs and chemicals by using computer models and tissue cultures (The Conversation).  So in conclusion why spend so much money on a form of testing that harms innocent animals when there are better alternatives?

My last reason is that animal testing does not work.  Less than 2% of human illness (1.16) are ever seen in animals and over 98% never affect animals (33 Reasons Why Animal Testing is Pointless).  75% of side effects identified in animals never occur and over one half of side effects cannot be detected in lab animals (Wahlberg).
While some may argue they are beneficial because the have helped cure other diseases, it is more true that they are more harmful than beneficial.  Some evidence to prove this reason is Vioxx was shown to protect the heart in mice, dogs, monkeys, and other lab animals, but It was linked to heart attacks and strokes in up to 139,000 humans (33 Reasons Why Animal Testing is Pointless).  That is why animal testing is not beneficial but extremely harmful.

Now that animals are not used in testing and have been replaced by computer models and tissue cultures now less drugs are toxic and harmful to humans.  Now that we have found this new alternative no one is harmed and this new form of testing actually works.  If we found a new and better form of testing a lot of problems would be solved..  So why do we spend all this money on this form of testing if it is not even helping?  We should be spending that money on developing a different form of testing that actually works.

Works Cited
"33 Reasons Why Animal Testing Is Pointless." Peta2com Site Wide Activity RSS. McGrath Family Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. .
Merkes, Monika. "Animal Research Provides a Flawed Model, so Why Not Stop?" The Conversation. N.p., 5 Aug. 2012. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. .
"PCRM's New Animated Video Highlights." Good Medicine 2014: n. pag. Kids Search. Web. .
Wahlberg, David. "'Tissue Chips' Could Replace Animal Studies, UW-Madison Researchers Say." Wisconsin State Journal [Madison] 21 Dec. 2015: n. pag. Web. .