Till What Point Should Scientists be Allowed to Abuse an Animal to Prove a Hypothesis: NOVA Speech

 

Experimenters castrated five young innocent monkeys, chopped their testicles, and regrew them to see if they were still capable of producing sperm. Out of 138 fertilized eggs, only one was viable, and Grady, who will be another victim, was born. Monkeys are genetically close to us, and it is a devastating reality that animals that are so close to our species are still treated like that. 

Good morning everyone, my name is Antonia Escobar, and the first
time I got a notion of what some animals are put through, is when I was a little girl and I saw photos of an abused rabbit. I have always had a passion for animals, I want to be a vet, and young me couldn’t believe innocent animals were suffering at the hands of mankind. 

Good morning everyone, my name is Juliana Castro, and since I was little, there were a lot of pets in my big family. I didn't have one, because I knew what a big responsibility it would be for me. I care about animals, so reading and investigating these animal testing abuses breaks my heart.

 So you can see the effects of animal testing, we wanted to show you this video by PETA or the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. 

We just saw so many photos of tested abused animals, and as horrible as these photos are, some are much worse. Animals are creatures with feelings, and as there are laws that protect humans from torture, there are indeed also laws that protect animals, but these are ineffective. The Animal Welfare Act states that animals should receive standard care at research facilities, but how does the AWA help when it doesn’t apply to the most tested on animals, such as rats, mice, birds, and fish? We should also keep in mind that when someone fails to obey these laws it is only punishable if it is inside a research facility, but outside of a lab, it is not a felony.

Other laws are forcing AWA, but they still are not enough to stop animal abuse. Laws such as the Public Health Service, this system consist and work with the OLAW or Office of Laboratory Welfare. The PHS has a policy helping vertebrate animals in the laboratories that receive federal funding, but the policy lacks enforcement. The agency requires only written assurance of compliance through the Office of Laboratory Welfare. When a facility is found deficient, OLAW takes little action and has no mandated follow-up or on-site inspection.

Experimenters call this “medicine” and think this is an excuse for their horrible actions. We are in the 21st century and we cannot keep believing that the only way to test pharmaceutical drugs is through animals. It has been proven that there are alternative ways that are often cheaper, quicker, and more effective than animal testing. It does not halt medical developments; therefore, it does not put humans at risk.

Scientific innovations have been slowly replacing areas that had abused animals, such as toxicity testing, and drug development. On top of this, the drugs that are tested on animals are very often unreliable on humans given that the diseases that are induced in animals are never a replica of human beings. About 85 HIV/AIDS vaccines have been successful in animals, yet we humans still don’t have a cure for us. It is unbelievable that only 52% of USA citizens are in disagreement with animal testing, whilst the other 48% are in agreement just in case of medical purposes. And top it all off, 90% percent of medical tests on animals don't get to the human treatment phase, which means animals are being abused without a purpose. 

Nonetheless, society is still feeding the companies that abuse animals without even noticing. Your tax money may be going directly to animal testing funds and the products that you buy from common brands such as Johnson and Johnson are still testing on animals.

We can’t believe people are saying that animal testing is good till one point, but once animals are tested on and abused there is no coming back. These poor animals have holes drilled into their skulls, their spines are crushed and they are forced to inhale toxic fumes, just to mention some of the cruelties they are put through. They are taken away from their known environments, and they are abused physically and physiologically before their death. We want you to reflect for 1 minute, and think how you would feel if you had to stay in the same room for 10 years.

That feeling of deprivation and depression is the same that animals feel, and the pain they endure when people are testing them. We strongly believe that animals should never be tested on, and given all the reasons we have previously mentioned there are safe and more effective methods than animal testing and abuse.

Mankind has always tried to base their actions around them being ethical or not, and animal abuse and testing should not be an exception. Good morals are not killing over 100 million animals a year, confining animals to a cage and intentionally causing them pain and loneliness. Humans are the smartest animals in the world, but this is not an excuse to abuse and torture inferior animals. On the contrary we should feel empathy for these animals, and not abuse our power. These animals are left with no ways to defend themselves and suffer slow and painful deaths at the hand of abusers.

Take action now, it can be as small as to stop buying makeup products that are tested on animals. Organizations should also take action and cooperate with governments to enforce harsher punishments and laws to those who abuse animals. It should be prohibited no matter if it is for medical purposes, for entertainment, or for education. The reason does not end up mattering to the scared animal, confined all alone in a cage and suffering at the hands of mankind. 

Bibliography: 

Quotes: https://www.google.com/search?q=animal+testing+and+abuse+quotes&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwsYWJ8sT-AhWIRTABHfRmA-sQ

https://bestenglishquotes.vicharoo.com/save-nature-environment-earth-day-slogans-quotes/save-animals-birds-wildlife-conservation-animal-rights-slogans-quotes/animal-abuse-shows-who-the-real-animal-is-world-animal-day-international-animal-rights-day-slogans-quotes/

Information:

https://www.peta.org/features/pictures-of-animal-testing/

https://www.peta.org/features/animal-experimentation-statistics/#:~:text=Every%20year%20in%20the%20U.S.,billion%20spent%20on%20animal%20experiments.

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-animal-testing/

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animal-testing-bad-science/

https://aldf.org/article/federal-laws-and-agencies-involved-with-animal-testing/

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-used-experimentation-factsheets/animal-experiments-overview/

https://worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/animal-testing-facts/

https://aldf.org/article/federal-laws-and-agencies-involved-with-animal-testing/

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-used-experimentation-factsheets/animal-experiments-overview/

https://www.petalatino.com/

https://crueltyfreeinternational.org/about-animal-testing/alternatives-animal-testing

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-used-experimentation-factsheets/animal-experiments-overview/

https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/6-horrific-experiments/

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-used-experimentation-factsheets/animal-experiments-overview/

Antonia Escobar and 

Juliana Castro, Step 8

Caring For Endangered Species

 The Mountain Gorilla Population

Mountain gorillas are one of only two species of gorillas in the world, compared to the silverback gorillas, their cousin from the forests of Central Africa, this animal is in greater danger of extinction.These gorillas only live as they say their name in the forests on the tops of the highest mountains in Africa.

During the last 40 years, this poor animal has been the victim of obsessive deforestation and illegal hunting by exploitative poachers. Mountain gorillas also have another enemy, the public people see gorillas as bloodthirsty and primitive beasts, but they are very intelligent, curious creatures, and in real life, they have never attacked a human being, and their entire diet is based solely on plants and forest vegetation.

 People have been unfairly discrediting these animals for years through caricatures and media manipulation, making them seem like monsters. Because of this, there is the possibility that these beautiful creatures disappear from this beautiful planet, all species deserve a place to live in this world.

It’s not too late to save this species of gorilla. Since 1989, the Global Wildlife Conservation Associations put them on the red list of the most endangered animals in the world. There have been conservation efforts to save this species, how to rebuild their forests, and safeguard the areas where they live. 

During this time, more and more people have joined the conservation of the species.They have gathered more resources to solve the problem but it has become difficult due to the conflicts in Africa with long lasting arrest, making it difficult to recover their habitat.

Today, mountain gorillas are still in danger of extinction, but thanks to the efforts of zoologists, scientists, and rangers, the mountain gorilla population achieved an incredible increase in numbers from 300 to 1,063 individuals scattered across Uganda and Rwanda. In troops or social groups of wild gorillas under surveillance by study groups for conservation purposes. 

Gorilla troops are composed of an adult male and 6 to 20 adult females and they're young and are under the protection of the male and he leads the group and guides them in search of food and keeps them safe from predators such as boas and leopards. During the nights the females and the young sleep in nests in the trees that they build using leaves and branches while the male sleeps in the forest bed.

 It is thanks to the efforts of people that we can learn things like this about how smart gorillas are and more ways to protect them, but it’s not only them, this way we can help give a second chance to all animals on this beautiful planet.

Information from World Wildlife Fund

Revisited by Samuel J. Villalba G., Step 9

Feature Article to Reflect

 Why is the Moon Fish the useless organism on the planet? 

How many of us are not the ones who come to feel inferior or simply useless in life? Today people do nothing more than compete among ourselves under our standards as people and this tends to be a problem for society in terms of positivism and self-esteem problems. How many people do not feel overwhelmed by the constant comparison with others? The amount is more than you may have thought, but if I have learned anything, it is that everything we do, we do it for ourselves and that is how he wants to let you know that you are a valuable and very useful person, or at least much more than the animal that I am going to explain facts about just next. 

To begin with, the moon fish is a marine animal, within its taxonomy it has a certain relationship with the puffer fish but honestly I am not here to write all the great qualities of this animal, quite the contrary, I am here to bring reasons why this animal is the most ineffective, fruitless, inoperative and useless within nature (Even, other adjectives that would still be tiny for this animal). 

 

This fish has a very peculiar shape. As you can see in the attached image, this animal has a vertical plate shape and its fins are positioned vertically, thus being at the top and bottom of it. Some will say "oh how beautiful" well no, thanks to the position of its fins, this animal is almost immobile, it cannot move through the sea as expected in a relatively normal fish, but then, how does it move?

It is believed that it moves through the current of the water regardless of how it goes, but it is also believed that it simply moves by spitting through its mouth and it is just perfect that we reached the mouth of that animal, because as if that were not enough, this animal is unborn (which in scientific terms means that it has no jaw) thanks to this, the animal cannot close its mouth.

There are people who mistake the Moonfish for the Sunfish, but there are some differences to be regarder for your information:

Do you know how the Moonfish feeds? To the surprise of many, this animal requires industrial amounts of food. Its diet consists mainly of various types of gelatinous zooplankton such as jellyfish, Portuguese frigatebirds, small fish and eel larvae from the depths in the stomachs of sunfish, which indicates that they search for their food both on the surface, on the seabed and in deep waters. This diet is poor in nutrients, which forces it to consume large amounts of food to maintain its size.

Taking into account the above, I suppose you are wondering, how is it that this animal is still alive? Well surprise, due to their little knowledge about the reproduction of this animal, it is thought that the females spawn in the sea between August and October. The females can lay up to 300 million eggs of approximately 13 millimeters that will be fertilized when they are in the water. What does this mean? Exactly, the chances of this animal becoming extinct is not even considerable.

You will think that this is already useless enough to be an animal, but no, the abomination of this fish does not end here, because this fish does not have a swim bladder. What is the swim bladder? The swim bladder is found in almost all fish except for this clearly. It is a bag of air, thus making the fish weigh more than the water. 

Knowing this, how do Moonfish float without having a swim bladder? Well, the caudal fin is not true, but it presents a tail-shaped structure formed from the rays of the dorsal and anal fins and the fish uses it as a rudder using them to propel itself within what it can.

Ever since I found out about this, I've been thankful everyday that I'm not a moonfish; therefore, and as a conclusion, I don't think I lack arguments to properly say that the moonfish is the most useless organism in nature, but in reality what I wanted to do with this was to convey another perspective and see that perhaps not everything is so bad.

It's okay to feel bad just like it's okay to give yourself a rest time when we consider it necessary (The Moonfish, as other creatures, including the human beings, ask to give them a break). This is why every time you feel bad about yourself, remember that moonfish exists and maybe you won't feel so bad.

By Sarah Naranjo, Step 9

PREAT New Comic: Dogs.

It says (cats and dogs), but right after, I changed the context of the story...

By Leonardo Guerrero, Step 9

My Guessing Game Poem

 

Poetry for The Frightened

 

On Animals’ Striving Career to Survive Climate Change

 

To The Dogs We Admire

 

Samuel Ortega and 

Daniel Cano, Step 9 Blue.

Poems About Animals

 

My Animal Guessing Poem

 

You might be wondering for a little bit

What my animal choice maybe

For sure one not so common

Though making guesses, you can go on

You won't identify it, even if you try forevermore 

My pretty animal a pet is not,

It isn’t that small, but definitely isn't a giraffe,

My precious animal may be a feline,

Or at least is how it looks like

It is close; however, not a cat,

A Feliformia if it is classified

A herbivore it is not,

Rather a carnivore, that meat eats up

What about its fur? You might wanna touch it, right?

It seems a mixture of a cheetah, a porcupine, 

And a racoon all in all, but it isn't a hybrid nor divine

What a pretty creature! How charming!, sadly not mine.

My animal weighs about 20 kilograms

When an adult it was, Musk the perfumers used to produce a lot,

Out of its extraordinary glands

Now, in savannahs, forests, and rainforests it can stride

Have you discovered what my wild animal is?

It is the African Civet, 

The nicest of the critters,

Or don’t you believe it is?

By Miss Odilia Pérez B.

E.L.A. Teacher 

My I Am Poem Describing An Animal

 I was domesticated by Egyptians,

More than five thousand years ago,

I can see very well far from a distance,

At least from forty kms, a long shot!

Can you distinguish as many colors as I can see?

I dare to say you cannot, is a deed

I can defeat any human with my sight,

I can travel without paying for a flight.

 

I can fly one thousand kms a day,

I am very strong, though not heavy,

Very little, but clever, I can say

I can live for thirty years, while you are just a bevy.

  

My feces were not discarded

In the inventive seventeenth century,

They were used to produce gunpowder,

You could say I caused anyone's injury.

 

My genetic memory is awakened 

By all the buildings in the city,

We are roaming, sometimes shaken 

By cats and people with no pity.

 

I used to live in rocky ledges and cliffs, 

I evolved on the shores of North Africa

And the Mediterranean Sea,

I love hard surfaces, don't you agree?

 

During many of this civilization's wars,

I was an excellent carrier,

Taking news, breaking barriers,

Amidst and over those devastating gores. 

 

I am the gracious pigeon, 

I am proud of myself,

I am the flying intelligence, 

I am the endurance itself!

 

 

by Miss Odilia Pérez, E.L.A. Teacher.

Wildlife Impacted By Climate Change: Essay

 How has climate change impacted wildlife already?

We know from popular images that surround the internet sites that animals such as Polar Bears have been heavily impacted within their habitats due to climate change. But are we doing anything to save them? Do we look further into other wildlife rather than just seeing a picture of a polar bear in a soon-to-be destroyed habitat?

Global warming is responsible for shrinking ice caps, forest fires and droughts. Additionally, the smallest changes in climate change affect hugely innocent animals, that don’t harm humans in any way. The human impact is the actual cause of something that can visibly be targeted as an irreversible factor, and in addition to that we are now submerging animals in this problematic.

Focusing on animals, there’s not much they can do, and what is most depressing is that they have no idea of what could be possibly happening to their habitat. Animals rely on their environment to survive and so do humans, but because of how advanced our communities, economies, and industries are, we forget that we need the planet that we are currently destroying. But animals don’t have the capacity to do all of this, so they are immensely affected.

Moving on to some threats to Wildlife include:

• The loss of wetlands, which lead to drier conditions due to higher temperatures.
• Sea level rise, that inundates habitats, beaches and marshes and cause erosion.
• Invasive species and disease, which usually take advantage of weakened species.

Lastly, what can we do after all of this?

There are still a few things that we can do to

help this wildlife survive even if it’s just a little bit longer. We can start by protecting forests, keeping the nature where it belongs and taking care of what it has to offer. As well as reducing your daily waste, like the use of plastic in hope for the habitat of some of this animals gets a longer lifetime, because if natural areas are so significantly impacted by climate change, even local plants and animals will recede or die off. This could ultimately impact the entire food chain, causing a mass extinction of species on a global scale.

Catherine Simmonds C., Step 11