More Americans Than Ever Oppose Medical Testing on Animals

Published by Katherine Sullivan.

The number of Americans who believe that medical testing on animals is morally wrong is at an all-time high. That’s the result from this year’s annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted by Gallup. The survey found that 44 percent of Americans fully oppose testing on animals.

In 2001, that same survey found that only 26 percent of Americans felt that animal testing was morally unacceptable.

PETA isn’t surprised by the Gallup poll results, and we’re thrilled that more and more Americans are realizing just how unethical and inhumane experimenting on animals is. We’re continuing to expose its cruelty as well as its scientific folly.

What’s Wrong With Animal Testing?

Since PETA’s inception and the landmark Silver Spring monkeys case, we’ve been campaigning to end the abuse of animals in barbaric experiments at contract laboratories, government agencies, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and universities. These facilities imprison millions of animals and squander billions in taxpayer dollars and charitable donations each year to conduct cruel experiments that cause immense pain and misery and are irrelevant to human health.

There are many non-animal testing methods that can be used instead. These options are not only more humane but also have the potential to be cheaper and faster than animal testing, and their results are actually relevant to humans.

What You Can Do

PETA’s eyewitness investigations and research have exposed a slew of absurd or fruitless animal experiments funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This means that your tax dollars are paying for these tests. Approximately 40 percent of the NIH budget—or $12 billion—currently funds animal experiments that many experts are now decrying as wasteful and irrelevant. With your help, we can end these funding fiascos and the animal suffering that they cause.

Please click the button below to send a polite e-mail to your congressional representatives urging them to mandate that the NIH stop wasting taxpayer money on cruel, useless animal experiments and instead focus on modern, non-animal methods of research.

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 Ingrid E. Newkirk

“Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?” READ MORE

— Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA President and co-author of Animalkind