The History of the Animal Testing Controversy - Essay Example

animal testing stated that scientists are mislead by the statements that the body of animals is different and that the suffering of pain has a different impact on animals. O’Meara had also commented about the ethical issues associated with animal testing, the gain made by human beings and the extent of harm to animals. But in 1865, Claude Bernand known as the prince of vivisection and father of physiology states that "the science of life is a superb and dazzlingly lighted hall which may be reached only by passing through a long and ghastly kitchen" (qtd in The history of animal testing).

Bernand indicates that there should be no consideration on animals that they have feeling, get hurt, and are entitled to live (The history of animal testing). William Harvey is an English physician of the early seventeenth century. He is known for vivisection and related findings about the circulation of blood and his work was mainly aimed to discredit the beliefs of Galen. The same century saw the uprising of anti-vivisectionist agitation. Edmund O’Meara from Ireland and Jean Riolan Jr. exposed the violent and painful death of vivisected animals (there was no anesthesia during those times) and the exposure of animals to an unnatural state that could delver only misleading theory about the functioning of a vivisected animal (Vivisection – An Ancient History).

There is a growing controversy about the authenticity of animal testing because animals are not humans and products tested for response from animal need not necessarily result in the same response from human beings. Hence cruelty and torture towards animal by injecting products into animals, rubbing products on the skin, forceful inhalation and spraying products into eyes cannot be justified. The latest controversies are generated by the Animal Welfare Act that demands companies to state, the number of animals used for testing.

Since birds, mice and rats are excluded from the list of animals it has become simple for