Picture being locked up in a cage, injured, alone, and in pain. Imagine being a prisoner without committing a crime. This scenario exposes the life of rabbits, mice, dogs, pigs, cats, and many other animals used in cosmetic product testing. The topic of whether animal cosmetic testing is necessary or not has been a topic that many have put-off, but something that should be thought about. The reason that specific animals like, rabbits, chimpanzees, and apes are used for experimenting is because their DNA almost exactly matches a human’s. Since these mammals’ DNA is almost identical, researchers are positive that they are a great tool for testing cleaning and cosmetic products. Though researchers don’t feel any remorse for how they treat
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.
Animal testing is cruel and inhumane. According to Humane Society International, animals used in experiments are commonly subjected to force feeding, forced inhalation, food and water deprivation, prolonged periods of physical restraint, the infliction of burns and other wounds to study the healing process, the infliction of pain to study its effects and remedies, and "killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means." [47] The Draize eye test, used by cosmetics companies to evaluate irritation caused by shampoos and other products, involves rabbits being incapacitated in stocks with their eyelids held open by clips, sometimes for multiple days, so they cannot blink away the products being tested. [48][49] The commonly used LD50 (lethal dose 50) test involves finding out which dose of a chemical will kill 50% of the animals being used in the experiment. [65][102] The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported in 2016 that 71,370 animals suffered pain during experiments while being given no anesthesia for relief, including 1,272 nonhuman primates, 5,771 rabbits, 24,566 guinea pigs, and 33,280 hamsters. [121]
Many people might say that animal testing has proven results for the safety of beauty products and cosmetics. Although, in some cases it is helpful, why would you want to use such an old outdated method of research in 2017 many more methods have opened up due to advanced technology. Animal testing dates back to the 1900’s and yet in the 21st-century companies are still doing this even though it is more costly than alternative methods.
Cosmetic animal testing is at all time high. Makeup has never been more popular than before. This means new products come out on a weekly bases. People see new products, they do not see the animal dying, just so they could get a new safe product. While many brands have joined the ranks of cruelty free, those include NYX, others still use animals to test products. The Draize Eye Test is used for cosmetic animal testing. This test causes horrible irritation. As Katrinack has said, this test causes "redness, ulcers, and even blindness." (FriendsOfAnimals.org. Date Accessed: 20 May 2017.) There is an alternative to these horrible irritation tests. The alternative is called the Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability Test. This alternative involves absolutely no animals. This procedure only involves
One alternative is using life-like computerized human-patient simulators. These simulators breathe, bleed, convulse, talk and even “die”. They can be used instead of animals in product/cosmetic testing. In fact, 97% of medical schools across the United States have replaced animals with simulators. However, for some reason many companies still test on animals, even though there are many solutions to this cruel testing including
Our country is home to a handful of cosmetic and skin care companies, many of which have become a part of our society’s daily routine. What many of us users may not know about these products is how they have been tested to their perfection. A large amount of companies choose to use an outdated and cruel way of testing product’s safety for in order to ensure perfection. Animals aid testing by being an empty slate for these cosmetic companies to test and improve their products. However, with other testing options available, why do companies continue to use this cruel and inhumane way of using animals for our selfish benefits? The first year that Animal Testing started was 1922. Now, 94 years
While certain animals are tested for medical reasons, some are used to test cosmetics. Cosmetic products include makeup items, perfumes, hair products, makeup brushes, lotions, soaps, etc.. “Alternatives to Animal Testing” states “Regulatory agencies require testing of consumer products, medicines, and industrial and agricultural chemicals to identify potential health and safety hazards”, meaning that testing of some kind is required before cosmetics can be sold. If makeup was not tested, it could be sold to millions of people and possibly cause harm. The damage caused by untested cosmetics could result in companies losing an incredible amount of money, and lessening said companies’ reliability. Animals seem to be an easy and accessible way to test
Because animal testing is starting to take a more distinctly negative response in today’s society, companies are searching for an alternative. Alternatives are going to be the future of animal testing; the world today is so technologically advanced that soon, society is going to be able to put animal testing to an end. There are already mandated requirements in place to ensure that the testing is not done delicately that state the “principle of replacement, reduction and refinement of animal experiments is a legal requirement,” ( “About Animal Testing”). These rules reduce the amount of animal testing that occurs, but they do not come close to ending the practice of testing for cosmetic and research purposes. The most favored alternative that
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.
There are many animals around the world that suffer every year from testing of cosmetic products. Animals ranging from rats, guinea pigs, rabbits and even dogs are violently mistreated in the process. Several tests are used on them to examine chemicals necessary to create products utilized everyday by people from all around. The public needs to be informed of the kind of abuse these innocent animals undergo and what should get done in order to end this cruelty. Together as a society, we can save the lives of thousands of innocent animals.
Animal testing in the cosmetology industry morally and logically denies several aspects. Many makeup industries like Cover Girl, Revlon, Maybelline, and Almay wastefully
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.
“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.