Should Animal Testing Be Used To Make Cosmetic Products?

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.

The destructive use of animals in experiments is not only cruel but also ineffective. Animal testing is a traditional approach to studying how human and animal bodies work. Many scientists who use animals debate that there is no other way to achieve their scientific purposes, and that any pain or distress caused to the animals is outweighed by the benefits of the research. However, is putting the lives of innocent, helpless animals worth it so that someone can enjoy a cosmetic product? On average over 115 million rabbits, dogs, cats, mice, and other animals are burned, poisoned and killed in painful experiments each year for the sake of cosmetics and toiletries. Many brands such as Dove, MAC, Maybelline, Veet, Michael Kors and plenty others

Sure the final product may look pretty, but is it really worth it to test these products that could be toxic, on defenceless animals? When people go shopping for cosmetics they can never picture the product being meant for humans, being used on a defenceless creature such as a bunny or a mouse. The test are not as accurate as testing on a human. In most cases the animals are never able to live the life they were meant to. People using animals to test human products on is pointless for many reasons.

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

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.

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.

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.

“We know that animals can experience pain and distress in experiments and that this can be severe. The way that animals are bred, transported, housed and handled may also cause suffering.”(RSPCA) Animal testing is an issue that has existed since the early 1900s. Some countries have passed laws to ban the use of animals in cosmetic testing, but the United States has not. This is important because over 100 million animals are tested on each year across the world. “Europe, the world’s largest cosmetic market, Israel and India have already banned animal testing for cosmetics, and the sale or import of newly animal-tested beauty products.”(dosomething.org) Animal testing needs to be banned from the United States.

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.

In the age of technology where production of cruelty-free products is safe and simple, the results from experiments involving animals are flawed and incomparable to humans, and testing is plainly cruel and inhumane, all cosmetic companies should cease the involvement of animal-testing along with an end to the sale of new products that have been tested on animals.

The topic I chose to focus my essay on is animal testing. Animal testing interests me because it has continued to be a problem for years now, it is not just a current issue. It is not just in our country either, this continues to be a problem all over the world. Many people find this to be a controversial topic because companies are using animals in order to test out their new chemicals. There are people in our society who believe that by using animal testing it is furthering our medical research and helping find new cures for many different diseases. Then there are people who choose not to trust the results because it has been tested on an animal rather than a human being. This has been a debatable topic for years and it is safe to say that everyone will always have their own opinion about the issue but, there’s always

Most of the tests are unreliable and inaccurate and called a “waste of animal life” as different species have various reactions to the product. Cosmetic brands such as Mac, Avon, Nars, Victoria Secret and many more have all been found to have chosen profit over principles, not thinking about the other better alternatives which don't cause animals pain. The cosmetic tests performed on animals are truly horrific consisting of; Skin and eye irritation tests where chemicals are rubbed onto the shaved skin or dripped into the eyes of restrained rodents without any pain relief, putting beauty cosmetics on the animals features, lethal dose tests, in which animals are forced to swallow large amounts of a test chemical to determine the dose that causes death and much

Animal models should not be used for cosmetic toxicity testing because it causes pain, loss of basic animal functions, and in some cases death to the animal model. Animal testing has become a recurring problem in today's society. Products that you would not even think of are being tested on animals for toxicity. Many companies are questioning whether animal testing is absolutely necessary and trying to find alternative methods like three dimensional skin models and different cell types to completely stop using animal models. In the article, REACH, animal testing, and the precautionary principle, this fact was given,“In addition, we will demonstrate that much of the methodology that this

Many people believe that animal testing for cosmetic products and substances should not be banned completely. The ECO Friendly Blog writes, “testing cosmetics on animals before introducing them to the public is needed for the process, or people would be exposed to products that are potentially harmful” (“Pros and Cons in Cosmetic Animal Testing” par. 4). This suggests that if you don’t test cosmetic products on animals it puts the lives of humans at risk every time the product or substance is being used. Without cosmetic animal testing, the products and substances could cause humans to experience severe health complications and or death. Nonhuman animals are used for cosmetic experimentation to ensure the safety of substances for the consumer

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.