I am Ryuto Yamane. Today, as a student, I would like to present my thoughts regarding animal experimentation.

First of all, animal experimentation is basically where animals such as mice, monkeys, rabbits, etc. are used for the trial of medicines or drugs before they are used by humans. At times, these experiments involve a tremendous amount of physical and emotional pains on the animals, that lead to death at times.

According to some people, this is considered to be unfair or cruel. One of them is Tom Regan, a Philosophy professor at the North Carolina State University mentioning that "Animals have a basic moral right to a respectful treatment. They should not be considered as scientific materials or subjects."

This is very true since all beings are (and must be) considered to be equal. Humans should not be arrogantly using other being's lives such as those of the animals. We all have the right to live and be respected.

Furthermore, animals also feel and behave like us, humans. They, too, feel pain as we humans do, but the rights of those animals are violated when they are used as research subjects for experiments. They experience extreme pain and some die because of this. No one among us would like to suffer or experience the same fate.

On the other hand, I am also aware that there are lives that are being saved as a result of animal experimentation. If people would have been given out medicines without any prior experiment or tests conducted to animals, there is no knowing on how many deaths of people it would cause.

So, the lives of humans and the lives of mice or rats (and other animals used for experimentation) are placed on the balancing scale. Personally, I would definitely choose to save human lives but that does not mean that I am free to abuse the animals just because of that choice.

I, myself, think that even though these animals would be used for experiments as sometimes, it is necessary, these animals should not be treated as mere objects that we own. They, too, have their own precious lives.

To conclude, I think that we could use animals for experiments, but it should be regulated. We should not give these animals excessive pain. The experiments should be done in the final state of the medicine where it is already properly refined so that it would not excessively harm the animals used. They should be protected because their lives matter too!

By: Ryuto Yamane, Secondary 3 Truth