Imagine living without any choice about what happens in your life – locked inside a closet, no choice when to eat, what to do, or even when the lights turn on and off. Think about how it would feel to live like this for your entire life, like a prisoner, although you have committed no crime. This is how animals in animal testing live, in a world of pain and misery. Animal testing is a common practice in the U.S, despite its unethicality, and its inaccuracy.

For one, animal testing usually does not work. 92% of drugs fail in human clinical trials, despite appearing safe and effective in animal tests. This shows that performing trials on animals does not reflect back upon humans. A recent study also shows that out of 93 dangerous drug side effects, only 19% could have been predicted by animal tests. “The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans.” This statement was made over 20 years ago by Richard Klausner, former director of the National Cancer Institute.

One hundred ten million animals are murdered in animal testing each year, and are forced to participate against their will. These animals usually die in extreme pain— some being forced to inhale toxic fumes, some being immobilized, some having holes drilled in their skulls, and others having their skin burned off or spinal cords crushed. This is also without their consent—humans have the choice to participate in activities that can bring harm, but these animals are forced to do so. This is extremely inhumane, for they are treating animals merely as things.

This information only proves that animal testing is unethical, and also inaccurate. Animals are tortured before they are killed, while these experiments still cost billions of dollars. The people of the U.S. need to stop this cruelty. Everybody wants to spend their tax dollars on things like better education and medication, not wasting billions on torturing animals for inaccurate data.