Imagine a life locked in a cage without any form of control over your existence. It's cold, it's dark and you're scared. You have no choice in what you eat, where you live, or how you are treated. You don't know if it's day or night or what will happen to you next. You are locked in a prison cell and you have not committed any crime. This is the life of a laboratory animal. Animal testing involves using animals for scientific research and experimentation. It can be used to discover cures and drugs, test new drugs, or understand the behavioral psychology of animals themselves. “Approximately fifty to one hundred million vertebrate animals, ranging from fish to primates, are used in experiments each year” (Lloyd). There are many different terms used to describe animal research, but two main ideas. In vivo research involves conducting an experiment on a living organism. In this case, the animal is not operated on but rather tested in a natural living state, for example by exposing it to a toxin or chemical and documenting the side effects. The other is vivisection and may be closely related to dissection or surgical experiments on life. This is an operation on a living animal for testing purposes rather than cure. This word is generally associated with negative perceptions such as torture, pain, suffering and death. Animal testing is carried out in a wide range of areas such as colleges and universities, laboratories and pharmaceutical companies. The main uses of animal testing are genetic development, biomedical and biochemical research, toxicology, cosmetic testing and much more. The use of animals for scientific research has always been a subject of ethical debate. Some major...... middle of paper ......nt/Actions-Israel/UndercoverInvestigation.htm>.www.timetoast.com/timelines/38507Lloyd, Emma. “Alternatives to the use of animals in research.” Animal testing (2008): n. page. Internet. February 27, 2011. Animal Welfare Information Center. UNITED STATES. Animal Welfare Act as amended (7 USC, 2131-2159). , 1966. The web. March 1, 2011. .Biever, Céleste. “Can computer models replace animal testing?” New Scientist 190.2551 (2006): 7. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Internet. March 4, 2011. Barnard, Neal D 1997: Animal research is useless and misleading. Scientific American 276: 80-85. European Commission. Joint Research Centre. Ispra: ECVAM, 1992. Web. February 26 2011. .