Animal Testing And Religious Perspectives on Animal Welfare
Animal rights are violated every day through cruelty towards them including being used for research purposes. Imagine that an Animal Research center has requested to take your pet animal to do some testing to try out a new medication. You think, alright, I don’t mind, not knowing the consequences they go through. They scream and cry for help but nobody helps them and at times, they lose their lives. This process of experiments in research labs is called Animal Testing.
According to some research, researchers have indicated that between 115 and 127 million animals were used for testing in 2020. (2)
What is animal testing?
Animal Testing is the process in which scientists or researchers use animals for their research about the effectiveness of a medicine or vaccine to ascertain the safety of that medicine in humans. Animal Testing helps scientists understand if the medication or vaccine is effective in treating conditions or side effects. This has also been used to make cosmetics and household products.
How animal testing impacts Animals and our environment?
When a medication or chemical is injected in an animal, they may develop side effects or a new disease leading to extreme pain and illness. The animals may develop an infection that may spread to other animals and humans leading to an epidemic or even worse, a pandemic. Some examples are Covid-19 and Monkeypox. There have been several impacts of animal testing environmentally, by affecting our animals and public health and lastly our biodiversity. This has led to a threat to extinction of animal species.
Also leading to Soil contamination due to animal carcass disposed on land, Air Pollution by toxic fumes in the air. Land pollution by carcasses disposed of on land and water pollution as contaminated soil gets washed to water sources leading to our water being polluted. This pretty much means that the water you just drank may have remains of a bunny from a research lab in it. Oops!
Animal waste from labs have totaled 1.5 million pounds from 2011 to 2013.
The agricultural processes that harmed the environment are also linked to the environmental damage resulting from animal testing. For example, a lab in Maryland spent over 500,000 dollars on animal feed within 18 months. (2)
Cultural and religious perspectives about animal welfare:
As a practicing Hindu, I was always taught to respect every living thing. I am myself anti-animal testing because of the Hindu/Jain/Sikh/Buddhist principle of Ahimsa(non-violence). According to this principle, it says no animal may be harmed. In hinduism, several people venerate or poach animals without being aware of this principle. Although I’m not vegetarian, I care for animal welfare and hope to become vegetarian in near future. (1)
The ancient Hindu scriptures, Vedas, set out the principle of nonviolence called Ahimsa. Ahimsa or non injury principle of nonviolence highlights the ethical importance of not harming any living beings. (1)
Religions such as Islam, Judaism and Christianity also have several strict rules on Animal Welfare. Unfortunately, Hindus are not very strict on the practice of Ahimsa in comparison to Jainism and Buddhism. Hindus believe in Karma where previous acts you have done in your life will come in different forms. This decides if you go to heaven or hell. There is a process known as Samsara in which souls are reborn as animals or humans vice versa. (1)
In Hinduism, it is believed that if a human causes pain, suffering and death of an animal produces bad karma. This will bring ill effects on that human.
There is a Buddhist law that says that those who cause violence and suffering to living things will experience that same pain at some time in the future. The Buddhist view on animals is illustrated in the Jataka stories (Buddhist lessons). Buddha is born as different animals in previous births, so killing animals is equated with killing humans. (1)
People practicing Jainism are usually vegetarians and strictly follow Ahimsa. They Literally will not harm a fly. Therefore, some Jains wear masks over their mouths to make sure they are not harming small insects by unintentionally breathing them in. (1)
How can we reduce and stop animal testing?
I want to share with you a small act plan for everyone to try and contribute to this mission. If we all try to do this act, lesser animals will be harmed every day.
Some ways to reduce or stop animal testing are as follows :
Make donations to agencies such as the Humane society or the Environmental Protection agency (EPA). The EPA is an agency that helps protect people and the environment from health risks of animal testing. The Toxic Substances Act of 1976 was made to monitor the exposure of chemicals so they don’t get out of control. However, the act only banned small numbers of chemicals. For example in 1970, large doses of Saccharin had caused cancer in lab animals. Instead of being banned in labs, products that had sweetener were banned.
Promoting Vegan Culture. This eating habit is not only healthy but also nature friendly.
Look for the leaping bunny logo on products that you buy.
Choose cruelty free cosmetics and cleaning products
Protest against animal cruelty.
Advocate for animal welfare through involvement in legislation, write articles/blogs, create podcasts and videos to increase awareness about animal welfare.
Finding alternatives to animal testing. For example, using human cells and tissues
Ex. Using vitro methods, Advanced computer technology, and studies with human volunteers.
Donate your body to science after your death for research
You can also boycott animal harm supporting sites. If you do this, it can help innocent animal lives by reducing the amount of animal deaths in America.
Making strict laws for animal welfare.
The clear conclusion of my blog is to highlight that the environmental implications of testing must be taken seriously and addressed right away. If we don’t do anything, harming animal lives in research labs will have dangerous consequences to the future of our planet.
I end this blog with some informative quotes.
“Traditional Animal Testing is expensive and time consuming, uses a lot of animals and from a scientific point of view, the results do not translate to humans”.
“Mice are Mice, and people are people”
“Every animal has certain fundamental rights and the first right of every animal is the right to live”
Stop animal testing! Save the planet!
Citations:
Szűcs E, Geers R, Jezierski T, Sossou EN, Broom DM. Animal welfare in different human cultures, traditions and religious faiths. Asian-Australas J Anim Sci. 2012;25(11):1499-1506. doi:10.5713/ajas.2012.r.02
“The Significant Impact Of Animal Testing On The Environment.” Jai Shroff, Jai Shroff, 15 Nov. 2016, jaishroff.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/the-significant-impact-of-animal-testing-on-the-environment.