Introduction
Unfortunately, animal cruelty remains an urgent problem in the modern world, even in developed countries. Animal cruelty is the unjustified infliction of harm and suffering to animals unrelated to self-defense. Human society is too accustomed to using and exploiting animals for selfish purposes, not paying attention to the suffering caused (Animal Cruelty Facts and Stats). Animal cruelty can be a personal manifestation of cruelty and systemic violence widespread in various fields and industries, including food production, medicine, and cosmetics.
Animal Cruelty Facts
The statistics on animal cruelty show how serious and global this problem is. In the world, one animal (Hrubenja) is mistreated every minute. More than 10 million animals die in the US annually due to violence, not including about 250,000 killed by hunting (Hrubenja). More than 115 million victims of laboratory experiments annually (Hrubenja). However, this is only a drop in the bucket, as 97% of animal cruelty occurs in the agricultural industry (Hernandez et al. 678). Different forms of abuse result in one thing – fear, pain, and death of conscious living creatures.
Animal Cruelty in Food Industry
In addition to the fact that the purpose of the agricultural industry is to raise animals and kill them for later use as food, animals also experience incredible suffering in the course of life. The conditions of keeping animals in large factories do not correspond to their natural habitat. Animals are born and die in narrow cages and stalls, living in cramped conditions without access to free range (Hernandez et al. 680). To appreciate the scale of the tragedy, it is enough to say that during the transportation of pigs, more than 40 thousand individuals are injured due to handling conditions (Lockwood et al. 1688). Farmed animals are also subject to genetic manipulation and selection (Gacek 315). “Organic” or “humane” are often labels that mean nothing in a big industry.
Animal Cruelty in Cosmetics
Cosmetic testing on animals is a type of animal cruelty and is banned in several first-world countries, including the UK, the EU, and Israel. A number of cosmetic brands have long proven to the world that it is unnecessary to use animals to test cosmetics for hypoallergenic properties and safety (Min et al. 95). US laws still allow animal testing of cosmetics (Curren et al. 140). Animal testing is not necessary as manufacturers can apply drugs to laboratory-grown tissues (Min et al. 95). There is no difference between whether the ingredient is applied to the cornea of a rabbit or a flap of tissue structures.
Animal Cruelty in Medicine
The question of animal testing in medicine and modern bioethics is more complex than in the field of cosmetics. On the one hand, scientists can also use lab-grown cells and tissues to test drugs (Cheluvappa et al. 10). However, since drugs do not just act on tissues superficially but penetrate the body and interact with all its systems, tissue use alone is not enough (Cheluvappa et al. 11). In order to develop new drugs that will potentially help tens of thousands of people, it becomes necessary to test them on complex living organisms – animals (Cheluvappa et al. 11). Bioethics is a complex topic, which must take into account the balance of expected benefits and harms.
Conclusion
Animal cruelty is controversial because it is at the core of modern human culture. Only in the last century have people begun to realize the extent of the harm they cause to sentient beings. Since then, civilized humanity has been looking for ways to reduce the suffering of animals worldwide and in all areas of life. The most burning questions remain with the farming kit and animal testing because people have to weigh the benefits and harms and create ways to limit unnecessary suffering.
Works Cited
“Animal Cruelty Facts and Stats.” The Humane Society of the United States, 2022, Web.
Cheluvappa, Rajkumar, Paul Scowen, and Rajaraman Eri. “Ethics of animal research in human disease remediation, its institutional teaching; and alternatives to animal experimentation.” Pharmacology research & perspectives 5.4 (2017): e00332. Web.
Curren, Rodger D., Erin H. Hill, and Martin L. Stephens. “USA: Contributions From the Institute for In Vitro Sciences and the Animal Protection Community.” The History of Alternative Test Methods in Toxicology. Academic Press, 2019. 137-145. Web.
Gacek, James. “Confronting animal cruelty: Understanding evidence of harm towards animals.” Man. LJ 42 (2019): 315.
Hernandez, Elein, Pol Llonch, and Patricia V. Turner. “Applied animal ethics in industrial food animal production: exploring the role of the veterinarian.” Animals 12.6 (2022): 678. Web.
Hrubenja, Aleksandar. “35 Disturbing Animal Abuse Statistics (2022 Update).” Petpedia, Web.
Lockwood, Randall, et al. “The influence of evidence on animal cruelty prosecution and case outcomes: results of a survey.” Journal of forensic sciences 64.6 (2019): 1687-1692. Web.
Min, Chao, Eunmi Lee, and Li Zhao. “Mining social media data to discover topics of sustainability: the case of luxury cosmetics brands and animal testing.” Sustainability in Luxury Fashion Business. Springer, Singapore, 2018. 93-111. Web.