OPENING STATEMENT (JENNA)

Rosie the mouse and her siblings live in a lab and are used for researching, evaluating and testing new medications. In the laboratory, they are kept in dark, tightly-packed cages and are repeatedly taken out for experimental injections. During a recent experiment, Rosie had lost most of her fur and suffered from sensitive skin and overexposure, without any pain medication. As a result, the drug tested on Rosie and her siblings did not pass when it came to human testing. According to the organization Peoples Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), only 8% of drugs that passed through animal testing succeed when tested on humans. Even though many scientists believe it is helpful in developing and testing new medicines, animal experimentation should not be practiced because of its low-reliability factor, the inhumane act of the suffering of animals in the procedures, and the option for scientists to use non-animal, viable testing alternatives. Thank you.

CLOSING STATEMENT (ALLISON)

In animal testing, countless animals are experimented on and then killed after their use. Others are injured and live the remainder of their lives in captivity. 92% of substances used in animal experimentation never get approved or used by humans and many of the experiments arent always accurate. Rosie and her siblings endured terrible experiments resulting in painful deaths by products with only an 8% chance of approval. Also, animal experiments waste money, time, and resources that can be spent on more human-relevant research and other testing alternatives. If animal testing is meant to develop more research for humans, it is not doing its job. Ask yourself. If you believe animals should live, why should you support animal experimentation, where most animals suffer, get injured or die in vain? Dont be responsible for innocent deaths. Save the animals. Stop animal testing. Thank you.

ARGUMENTS AND EVIDENCE

Animal experiments can have misleading, unreliable results. An animal may respond differently to a medication than a human. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration reports that

92 out of every 100 drugs that pass animal tests fail in humans. Also, the stress that animals endure in labs can affect experiments because they are not reacting in their natural habitats. Experiments anywhere from burning, shocking, poisoning, isolation, starvation, drowning, and extreme brain-damage are allowed because there is no U.S. law restricting types on animal testing, no matter how painful. PETA states that the Animal Welfare Act does not protect rodents because there is no requirement to provide any painkillers to them. According to the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, over 25 million animals are used in animal testing and over 90% of the animals in animal testing are mice, rats and birds. Also, a survey conducted from Newcastle University shows that only 20% of rodents are given post-pain reliever medication, meaning that the majority of animals used in animal testing are not even given painkillers and are left to suffer. Additionally, animal testing is very costly and could be replaced with other testing methods. The article, The High Cost of Animal Testing explains how 20 million dollars are spent on exposing animals to drugs for I quote, a variety of arbitrary and pointless tests end quote. A better way to spend taxpayer money is to conduct more research on successful alternatives, including, test tube studies on human tissue cultures, statistics, and computer models. Therefore, animal experimentation is unreliable, inhumane, and should be replaced with non-animal alternatives. Thank you.

CROSS-EXAMINATION QUESTIONS (ALLISON)

Do you support animal rights?

Do you think it's cruel to confine innocent animals in small laboratory cages and cause them pain, loneliness, and fear? If you had a pet, would you want your pet to suffer from the cruelties of animal testing? Is it fair to subject animals to cruelty when they cannot protest for themselves? Do you think the low 8% efficiency rate for animal testing is reliable? Should animals die in vain for animal testing? Thank You.

REBUTTAL (JENNA)

Generally, the scientific community is strongly in favor of animal testing. They believe that it is preferable for an animal to suffer, as opposed to a human. My opponent has said that animal testing has significantly benefited mankind. It is true that animal testing has helped to develop vaccines against many diseases, but many vaccines that had worked on animals didnt produced the same results on humans. For example, Dr. Klausner, former Director of the National Cancer Institute, stated that [scientists] have cured cancer in mice for decadesbut it simply didnt work in humans. Also, 80 vaccines tested on the chimpanzee, the geneticallyclosest to humans, actually failed in 200 clinic trials and even had one that increased the possibility of HIV. Therefore, animal testing produces unreliable, invalid data. Thank you.