Animals Right to Dignity and Fair Treatment with respect to Experimentation and Testing
This Research Paper is written by Shristi Singh, a Second Year BBA. LLB (Hons.) student at UWSL, Karnavati University.
Introduction
Every living organism has equal rights as we human beings have. Although we cannot abjure the fact that for our ameliorate people have been practicing wrongful activities like animal trafficking, slaughtering, illegal trading of animals for carrying out experiments, etc. Although there have been many laws to stop these activities, still demand in the illegal International market trade is a constant inflation. As sometimes people do want to test and experiment on the species that are going to be extinct or endangered. It is aforementioned that it has emerged as a form of organized Transnational Crime, though 40% of wildlife has been predicted to extinct because of humans, which resulted in the threatened existence of wild species on the globe. Sanguinely there is no direct demand in India, as we follow a strong framework and policy regulation in our country as also being members of CITIES that stand for Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. By law over 1800 species of wildlife animals and plants are categorized extinct under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, but the implementation and enforcement have been meager and there isn’t a practice of formal routine check.
Reasons to why testing should stop
It has been debated for ages whether the testing has been a painful process for the animals or not. As some of them do say that it is necessary as if not animals where we are going to experiment or test the medicine. Although some of the experts do say that the degree of testing should be done in a limited way. As for some animals, their companies, and for some, it is a medical research technique. But we should not forget that it is a living organism after all. Humans and animals do have the same feelings, they do behave in the same manner and therefore it is our human morality that we should respect their life. As the animals could not speak. So they do not end up protesting for the medical experiment as we do. The animals do not voluntarily act as bait for experiments and testing. They do not have any choice; they are forced to perform under medical pressure. Even experimenting on animals was so much out of control that even for makeup products animals were used for testing. If there is a will there’s a way. This quote was proved to be true by a makeup industry named “The body shop[1]”. It is a well-known brand in the makeup industry. It came with an alternative that instead of animals, natural ingredients like banana peel could be used for experimenting. So that it could also fulfill their motive or experimenting and testing their product and on the other hand animals won’t face any problem. Also, it was suggested by one more company that for testing makeup we could always create an artificial skin and test on it. These were some of the best alternatives that the makeup industry has started adapting to.
Betterment of Society
There are some people who do debate that the experiment that is carried out on the animals is a necessary process. As they do believe that it is carried out so that the product might be safe for the use or consumption of human beings. As some of the other percentage of humans do feel that animals do not have any right and are a part of lower species compared to us humans therefore the experiment should be carried out on them. It can never be stated or debated enough on the fact that the animals that are used for experimenting are always tortured till they die[2].
Animal’s right to dignity
This is not a fresh topic that has emerged in years. It has always been debated whether on the first hand do animals even have any rights. IS there anything that even human beings have been violating when it comes to animals? Well yes, we have been violating some of their rights as a society or even as an individual. The only reason why we do not know about their rights is because unlike us they cannot protest or cannot speak for their own rights. This is the only reason why we consider ourselves superior compared to them.In the past there have been multiple cases that would help us realise and determine that what we have been doing with animals since ages is a wrongful act and it should be stopped immediately. As after knowing the harm we do cause to them it would be an injustice act of us as humans.
There was a very famous case in India that was Animal Welfare Board Of India vs. Nagaraja and Ors. In this case[3] it was clearly stated and explained that each and every living creature (which does even include animals) does have the right to live. It does include that they do have a peaceful life, and also should be protected against any odd that does cause them suffering or any pain. This right is also applicable when it comes to animals therefore we cannot just go on testing and causing pain to them. As on legal terms we do tend to harm and also infrieng their various rights. Therefore now is the time that we should learn to respect their rights and should provide them the lawful rights which should have been provided to them earlier.
Also there has been another famous law that does state the same in consideration to recognizing the right of animals. As in Justice Rajiv Sharma’s Judgment he did mention and also stated that “all the animals have a right to live with dignity” . Also it is the duty of government and the society to protect animals from this kind on injustice. As how well educated and well behaved a society is can be denoted by its people as to how they treat the animals.
Some of the other ways by which we do also cause harm to the animals
Whereas some animals are used for export import business, another major problem is animal slaughtering, it is approximately estimated that 72 billion of just land animals are slaughtered, excluding other animals like marine life. Poaching practices in India is believed to be doubled while there’s a lockdown in the country because of Covid-19 Pandemic. Even though these are some rules and regulations to be followed while slaughtering but that doesn’t even help slightly because there’s no checking done by government. The animals die piece by piece. In India slaughtering of cow for Muslim practices was a huge controversy as for Hindu’s cow is correlated to goddess and therefore in the country slaughtering of cow has been illegal. Although argument states that some people contradicted the statement stating that they do for charity for feeding poor people free food. Reluctantly I doubt the number of poor people willing to eat beef or non-vegetarian, if their pure intention is charity then why not provide pure vegetarian food so more poor could access. Though the supreme court of India considered this practice unlawful as it was related to the sentiments of Hindus and in Muslim law of alternative of killing 11 goats was listed replacing cow slaughtering practice. As Animal Trafficking and Slaughtering practice should stop as it affects us in many ways in short term It would be profitable but in long terms huge price is to be paid, it generate significant pollutions and utilization of water is much more in processing, it is depletion of nature and wildlife .
Conclusion
After learning all the facts and knowing the ugly reality that the world goes on following is more than enough to conclude that we should stop animal testing and should find an alternative way. As they are also living creatures we have been continuously since ages kept on violating their rights. It is a matter of time that there would be strict court rules and punishment for practicing this illegal activity and people would be supposed to pay for it in either penalty or serving in jail. As through research it is concluded that we could also create an artificial replica and carry out our experiment and testing so that we do not end up hurting or harming the animals. ALo there have been times when the drug that was tested on the animal succeeded but when it was tried on a human being it failed. Therefore it is not worthy to try on animals. As there are two strong reasons to support this statement. Firstly something unlawful has been tried out which is always a problematic work. Secondly we are going on harming the animals for no good use as although humans and animals are a close species they are not the exact same species[4]. While carrying out a survey many many of the companies did claim that this failure is not merely 10 or 20 percent but it takes place around 80 to 90 percent and sometimes even goes up to 95 percent. Therefore it is something that should be stopped as not even half of the experiments done are fruitful so why should the animals suffer and face all the consequences. Also this experiment tends to have bad effects on the animals which tend to deteriorate their health[5].
[1] Against Animal Testing. The Body Shop, 1993.
[2] Balls, Michael. “Time to Reform Toxic Tests.” New Scientist 134 (1992):31-33.
[3] [2014], SLP (Civil) No: 11686 of 2007
[4] Innovation and stagnation, Challenge and Opportunity On the Critical path to New Medical Technology, March 2004, Accessed on : 22th September 2020
[5]Anindita,Animals Right to Dignity and Fair treatment with respect to experimentation and testing,legal service India, 22 September 2020, 10 pm, http://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-3683-animals-right-to-dignity-and-fair-treatment-with-respect-to-experimentation-and-testing.html#:~:text
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