Cosmetic Animal Testing Controversy

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.

In this paper there are three main topics that are going to be covered. They are alternatives to animal testing, animal testing in cosmetics, and the news in the cosmetic industry related to animal testing. For this paper there were four sources that were evaluated. All of them had a few things in common and through that it was easy to link them together through three different subtopics that will be evaluated later in this paper. The first source that I will be using is “The Science of Dermocosmetics and Its Role in Dermatology”. This article was written by Dreno, B., E. Araviiskaia, E. Berardesca, T. Bieber, J. Hawk, M. Sanchez- Viera, and P. Wolkenstein. The second article that will be effective in this essay is “New

Imagine being born, only to live a life of torture. You are brought to a lab, and cruelly tested on against your will. Toxins poured into your eyes, painful injections to your skin, then left to die when you’re no longer useful. Although many do not realize it, people use products tested on animals in their everyday lives. For girls, many of your favorite makeup brands, such as Estee Lauder, Makeup Forever, and Maybelline take part in animal testing. Products such as toothpaste, cologne, deodorant, laundry detergent, razors, and even band-aids aren’t tested innocently, either. As a makeup enthusiast, I am passionate about how the products I use daily are tested. Today I will help you understand what animal testing is and how it started, how it’s currently affecting animals around the world, and what organizations are doing to help make a difference in the future. To begin, I will explain the history of animal testing. An animal test is any scientific experiment or test in which a live animal is forced to undergo something that is likely to cause them pain, suffering, distress, or lasting harm.(https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/why-we-do-it/what-animal-testing) Animal experiments are not the same as taking your animal to the vet. Animals used in laboratories are harmed, not for their own good, and usually killed at the end of an experiment. Animal experiments include injecting or force feeding animals with potentially harmful substances, exposing animals to radiation,

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

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.

A lot of people buy cosmetic products being ignorant to the fact that, that one product has killed a lot of animals. How would you like being sprayed with poisonous liquids, taking poisonous eye drops?, or being fed toxic substances? Cosmetic factories have been doing these inhumane things and more to innocent animals for years.

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”).

The US Food and Drug Administration endorses the use of animal tests on cosmetics to ensure the safety of the product and ingredients. Mosquito repellant which helps protect people from Malaria and other dangerous illnesses, must undergo toxicological tests in order to be sold in the United States. (procom.org) It has been estimated that millions of animals per year are used to test the safety of household cleaners, pesticides, industrial chemicals, food additives, packing materials, drugs and vaccines for both people and animals, and even the food eaten by other animals. The use of animals to test cosmetics and other care products has declined in recent years, a wide array of non-animal skin and eye irritation tests have been developed to determine the effects of short term exposure to new ingredients. The pressure from the public has played a major role in these alternatives.

Webster’s Dictionary describes cruelty-free as: “developed or produced without inhumane testing on animals” especially in regards to the cosmetic industry. Encyclopedia Americana states that an estimated 25 million mammals are used annually in research in the United States most of which experiments are used in researching human disease. Also controversy over animal experiments began in the 19th century in Britain and by the turn of the century attempts have been made in the U.S to pass laws to restrict animal experiments. Furthermore, two separate categories fall under the term animal cruelty: animal welfare and animal rights. One advocates the use on animal research but to prevent abuse of animals within these experiments. The other, welfare

Every day in Australia, poor creatures of the animal species are struggling for survival, given no food or water, left in unsanitary conditions and being poisoned by hazardous chemicals, but what for? Animal product testing. The cruel and inhumane ways of testing cosmetic products on animals is considered harsh and barbaric. What can be done to these animals has no limit as they have little hope spending their days lacking the care and attention they deserve. Imagine being locked up in a small metal cage with no food or water, stripped of your freedom. During the experiments, most animals die and the lucky ones who survive are still shortly killed after. Animal experimenting is a cruel alternative of testing cosmetic products and it must definitely be banned.

Scientists use animals because they have the similar composition to the human. However, the result does not necessity apply for the human body. This is because the environment where the experimental animals are placed is unusual. Also, when they are used, they have restricted their bodies. These aspects might influence the result. Dr. Richard Klausner, former Director of the National Cancer Institute, stated: “We have cured cancer in mice for decades—and it simply didn’t work in humans.”

For hundreds of years, animals have been used to trial cosmetic products before released to the public. The majority of these companies strive to conceal the idea of harming animals for their products, to avoid harm to their reputation or profit. Animals are forced to inhale substances, have chemicals forced into eyes, and are stored in containers with several other diseased animals. These cruel actions cause a large percentage of the population to campaign against these companies. Protests, boycotts and social media awareness are all methods used by activists to promote their cause and to strive for a greater future for animals. These animal liberators induce the government to create laws to prevent harm to animals through cosmetic testing.

Animal testing has long played a part in the science of testing, and it still plays a very important role in the medical world. Testing on animals in order to create a cure for AIDS is one thing, but testing on animals for human vanity is another. Animal testing is used to test the safety of a product. It has kept some very unsafe substances out of the cosmetic world. However, in this day in age, animal testing is not the only way to test the safety of a product. Animal testing in cosmetics has decreased over the years. However, it is still used by many companies in America. Animal testing is not only cruel, but it is also unnecessary in today’s advanced scientific world.

People around the world trust cosmetics to be non-toxic and harmless to the skin. Along with makeup, moisturizer, and nail polish. The United States administration considers hygiene products, like shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste to be labeled as cosmetics as well. Before these cosmetics are placed on the market shelves, they have to be tested either on animals, humans, or scientific methods. Most of the time cosmetic companies opt for testing on animals, they claim that they are testing the safety of the ingredients in the product. However, there is no law in the United States that requires cosmetics to be tested on these beings. Therefore, makeup companies should not test cosmetics on animals because it is inhumane, unnecessary, very expensive, and is a practice of animal cruelty.

“According to the view that an animal 's moral claim is equivalent to a moral right, any action that fails to treat the animal as a being with inherent worth would violate that animal 's right and is thus morally objectionable (Gruen).” This quote relates to a serious matter in that the use of animals in the testing of cosmetics is inhumane. Animal testing for the sake of cosmetics is a cruel, unethical and an unnecessary method of practice. There is debate among the companies in this practice (as well some people who follow the opinion of these companies) and other people who stand for the rights of animals in such practices and what end it serves.