Cosmetic Testing On Animals Research Paper

This is an annotated bibliography of animal testing and if it’s morally justified. There are many opinions on the results and the entire process that it takes to test a cosmetic product or a medicine on an animal. There are many alternatives and benefits to animal testing but is it really justified? Or are animals in potential danger.

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.

This is an annotated bibliography of animal testing and research to see if it’s morally justified. There are many opinions on the results and the entire process that it takes to test or experiment a cosmetic product or a medicine on an animal. There are many alternatives and benefits to animal testing but is it really justified? Or could animals be in potential danger.

To support or not support animal testing practices has been a long debated topic. Animals have been used in medical and cosmetic tests since the 1900s leading to numerous medical treatment breakthroughs and ensuring the safety of everyday products we use. Recently animal advocate groups have called for the abolishment of animal testing, causing a divide on whether or not to continue animal testing. In order to keep innovating new solutions for diseases that plague our communities and loved ones, allowing the use of animal testing to end preventable tragedies must occur.

The experimentation of animals has been used for a multitude of years for research to advance a scientific understanding of a living organism. To this day animals are being tested on for the use of human products. In 3D-printing human skin: The end of animal testing? by Jessica Mendoza, Speculative Philosophy, the Troubled Middle, and the Ethics of Animal Experimentation by Strachan Donnelley, “Animals and Medical Science: A Vision of a New Era” by David O. Wiebers, Cruelty-free cosmetics benefit consumers as well as animals by The Sydney Morning Herald, and Technological Alternatives Can End the Experimental Use of Animals by George Dvorsky, show how Animal experimentation is redundant and needs to be diminished because there are

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 still done by cosmetic companies even though it is unethical and scientifically inaccurate. The various tests carried out on animals is not a guarantee for using cosmetics on our skin since animals react differently to certain chemicals as compared to humans. Cosmetics companies kill millions of animals every year in pursuit of profit. The animals that suffer and die in these laboratories range from rabbits to mice. According to companies that perform such tests, they are done to establish the safety of products and ingredients. However, no law requires that cosmetics products be tested on animals. The Food and Drug

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

Animal testing for cosmetic products and substances should be banned completely because of the cruelty the animals encounter during the experiments. According to neavs.org, animals “spend their lives in barren cages, unable to make choices or express natural behaviors”( “Harm and Suffering”). The animals that are being used for testing are being contained in crowded cages in an unnatural habitat. They don’t get the freedom to experience fresh air or sunshine because of the condition they are kept in everyday. This restrains the animals from doing what they coexist to do naturally. The standard lab conditions causes animals to go through severe stress, which then later on appears as physical signs of stress. According to their website,

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.

The controversy on whether animal experimentation is morally right has grown greatly since the 1980’s. For cosmetic and scientific purposes, animals have been used as variables to hypothesize how a certain product or drug would react on or in a human’s body. Cosmetically, animals are bred and used to test skin and eyewear products. This includes shampoos, hair conditioners, deodorants, makeup products and creams. Scientifically, animals are used to understand medical drugs, diseases or viruses. While this may seem productive, animal experimentation is flawed and unnecessary.

Every year, it is estimated that hundreds of millions of animals are used for experiments worldwide (Cohn). In those millions, an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 animals are used to test cosmetics alone (Humane). Scientists shouldn’t be allowed to test cosmetic products on animals because it is cruel and inhumane, there are other effective alternative methods, and it isn’t necessary.

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”).

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.

Using animals in research and to test the safety of products has been a topic of heated debate for decades. According to data collected by F. Barbara Orlans for her book, In the Name of Science: Issues in Responsible Animal Experimentation, sixty percent of all animals used in testing are used in biomedical research and product-safety testing (62). People have different feelings for animals; many look upon animals as companions while others view animals as a means for advancing medical techniques or furthering experimental research. However individuals perceive animals, the fact remains that animals are being exploited by research facilities and cosmetics