Animal Testing Should Be Banned

Millions of animals every year are being used in labs to test cosmetics. This problem has become a worldwide issue and the U.S. needs to make a change by prohibiting the use of animals in testing cosmetics for safe use.

Everyday cosmetic products that many people use, such as lipsticks, shampoo, face wash, etcetera, are verified to be safe using animal testing. Chemical burns and other short term ailments are very serious concerns that plague Americans and the knowledge that the products they use will not harm them and their families is possible because of animal testing. Also long term effects, such as cancer, have been discovered through animal product testing and promptly stopped saving countless lives. “NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS YOU’RE THE GUINEA PIG” (Source C). Living day to day with the risk that the products trusted to use on your children and yourself is enough to validate

Everyone has probably worn or has owned something animal tested, whether they’ve known it or not. Animal testing has been around since the early ADs but was most commonly known for starting about 150 years ago with the rise of physiology as a science. As “Companies That Still Use Animal Testing” says, these testings have gone down a lot with new developments for these kind of testing but there are still many major companies such as L’oreal, Clorox, Covergirl, MAC, Pantene, Dove, Avon and hundreds of other companies you’ve probably used. These companies torture these animals and even kill them with their products just so there is yet another brand of shampoo or another brand of makeup. Animals have chemicals rubbed in their fur, eyelids fused together, and are forced to starve inside of these facilities everyday. Furthermore, animal experimentation should be illegal and replaced with other forms of non animal-human subjects.

A rabbit lives its life trapped in a laboratory. It doesn’t get fresh air and has different products tested on it every day. The product can make the rabbit go blind or cause its skin to burn, but there is nothing the rabbit can do about it. This is what happens to animals every day from cosmetic companies who test their products on animals. According to Cruelty Free Kitty (2017), over 30 cosmetic companies continue to use animal testing to improve their products. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2017), “the agency has consistently advised cosmetic manufactures to employ whatever testing is appropriate and effective for substantiating the safety of their products.” This means that if the company believes animal testing is the best option for their product they are allowed to do it. Testing cosmetics on animals is cruel and inhumane, and people should avoid using products that test on animals.

If rabbits could speak, they would probably tell you to stop supporting many of your favorite companies. Even your most trusted household brands, such as Maybelline, Arm & Hammer, Listerine, and even Lysol contribute to the millions of innocent animals subjected to cruel and wasteful product testing every year. These and many other widely popular brands implement animal testing during the production, modification, and design of their products. This testing is extremely dangerous to animals and in some cases humans as well. In spite of this, products American citizens use on a daily basis come from companies that test their products on animals and the consumers of these products are virtually blind to the evils that lie behind them. Animal testing is immoral and should be abolished because it tortures innocent creatures, is an ineffective method of testing a product, and is far more expensive than the alternatives that exist.

Many of the cosmetics that we use every day have also been tested on animals. The number of animals used for cosmetic testing has been greatly reduced as the potential hazards have been eliminated. Products such as sunscreens, anti-dandruff shampoos, fluoride toothpaste, and anti-acne creams could not have been proven safe without the use of animal testing since they contain ingredients that cause a chemical change in the body that could be harmful, even deadly. Without these safety tests, it would be impossible to ensure that these products are safe.

Animal testing is a very serious issue, considering the fact that it kills one-hundred thousand to two-hundred thousand animals each year (“About”). Many companies do not believe that animal testing is a serious problem and find that there are issues that are more important to worry about. The FDA believes that animal tests should be replaced with other tests that do not involve the use of animals because of the harm it causes them (“Animal Testing and Cosmetics”). Animals have emotions and feelings just as humans do, even though they are not always noticeable. Although animal-tested cosmetic products are very popular and used everyday by most people, animals are being hurt and killed daily to create them, therefore they should be banned

Think about the cosmetic and pharmaceutical products used in everyday life. Cosmetic products such as make-ups, soaps, deodorants, and shampoos are tested on animals. Medical products such as birth control and Visine are tested on animals as well. The FDA requires testing for medical products but cosmetic products are not required to. While it has made some advancements medically, scientists should seek out different ways to test products meant for human use; so we look at the ineffectiveness of animal testing, difference in human and animal biology, and animal fatalities.

Animal testing should not be used in cosmetic industries as a source of experimentation because it is unethical and inefficient. It is a cruel way of trying to find results that are not even always trustworthy. Everyone has a different reaction to different chemicals so why even bother animals for testing? Also different species can respond differently when exposed to the same chemical so animal testing can be inefficient. The results from animal tests can be quite variable and difficult to interpret therefore it may not be applicable to human beings. Thus, consumer safety still cannot be guaranteed even after these gruesome tests which are totally unethical. It is also unethical to torture and end the lives of these animals each year for our own luxury. Everyday cosmetic industries are using defenseless animals very cruelly just to carry out some most often useless tests. Instead they should use other alternatives which has been proved to yield better and accurate results than tests involving animals.

(1) Tests on animals can’t always be a reliable source to predict the effects of a chemical or cosmetic ingredient on a human. The only way to test chemicals and ingredients for human effects would be to use a human. (2) It seems useless to put animals through so much pain and suffering if the results might not even be accurate. If the testing doesn’t guarantee an accurate result, then the animals shouldn’t be put through all of that for nothing. Animal testing also cannot guarantee safety for the user of the cosmetic because many times the test results are very unreliable. Different things react in different ways on different species. Results from animal tests can be over or underestimated to the extent on how it may react on a human. (1) Because is is proven that humans and animals don’t always have the same reactions, why wouldn’t the cosmetic companies use some type of alternative experiments that are more accurate? The two species have very different anatomy, so the reactions will obviously be different. There is also little scientific credibility of cosmetic animal testing because when it was first used in the 1930’s, we did not have a very good understanding of how toxicity worked in the human body or the know the difference of how it worked between different species. (1) Animal testing is not only cruel and not always reliable, but there are many more efficient and reliable alternatives to it.

Millions of animals are being unneedlessly tested on for cosmetics, even though there are plenty of alternatives available and most of the results are unreliable or not applicable to humans. Although the fight against animal testing has made huge progress recently, America has yet to stop this cruel practice and chooses to torture animals while other countries are making a stop to the testing (“Animal Testing 101”).

According to a result of pressures from animal support groups such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), a number of large corporations have ceased all animals testing in recent years. These corporations include Amway, Benetton, Revlon, General Motors, and L’Oreal were recently added to the list, which used to subject animals to shocking tests. In Against Animal Testing, a booklet published by The Body Shop, a well-known cosmetics and bath company, that uses natural ingredients, like bananas, almonds, aloe Vera, chamomile, and Basil nut oil, as well as others safe for human usage is encouraged instead of testing on animals. According to PETA, all companies included on their cruelty-free list have signed PETA’s statement of

“Beauty without cruelty” is the outcry that can be heard from animal right activists around the world. The FDA does not require companies to perform tests on animals but if the cosmetic product contains chemicals that can be seen as toxins, testing becomes a necessity. There are currently thirteen safety tests that are performed on animals.

One of the leading industries in the United States is the cosmetics business. When cosmetics started up people were applying all different types of product to their bodies. While using the products, people were starting to acquire serious injuries to their skin and hair. This forced make-up producers to figure out a way to test the products before it hit the market. In the 1940s, scientists started to use animals for testing purposes. In recent years, testing on animals has decreased because producers use safer ingredients in their products. Even though there are safe ingredients, people continue to experiment with new chemicals and dyes. To avoid major lawsuits, companies still experiment on animals to prove the product is safe. With all these new products, the Food and Drug

Consumers are concerned about product safety and the use of animal testing by cosmetic companies.