Should Animal Welfare Laws Be Enforced?

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.

Many people often oversee the effects of animal testing. This has been going on for decades and many are unaware of the results and the damages animal testing can cause. Animals undergo a lot of stress and pain when they are put through experimentations. Many have debated that it is unethical to test on animals while others say it helps to protect the safety of humans. In my opinion, animal testing is cruel and should be made illegal. Their lives are just as important as human lives and should not be treated as experimental animals. The system of an animal differs from the human system, therefore even if a tested product did not harm the animal, it may or may not be harmful to humans. Hence, our body system reactions differ from the bodies of an animal. It has been scientifically proven that 90% of the animals being tested in labs results in death while only a handful of animal experiments are successful. There are multiple alternative methods rather than forcefully harming innocent animals. I will explore how animal testing can affect the health of the animals and if there is possibly a better alternative rather than testing on animals.

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,

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.

It is estimated that each year over 100 million animals in the United States are used for animal testing (ProCon.org, 2017). This is unlikely an underestimate as it is impossible to receive a correct count worldwide. Thousands of animals are to be euthanized from the complications they endure from testing. Animals are used to test scientific developments and commercial products. New medical and non-medical experiments are tested on animals to verify the harmfulness of new medications or the safety of a product that will be used on humans. Although the importance of animal testing brings more medical advancement over the years using fewer humans in experiments, it is still an expensive way of researching inaccurate results and at the same time, it is a practice of animal cruelty.

“Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in US labs every year” (11 Facts). Animal testing is a very flawed creation in today’s world. This innovation has caused much harm to many animals while also hurting the opinions of animal activists around the world. Animal testing is also known as the use of animals in experiments and development projects usually to determine toxicity, dosing and efficacy of test drugs before proceeding to human clinical trials (Biology Online). The use of animal testing has been around for throughout all of history, it also carries its disadvantages as they diminish the lives of many animals along with their unspoken opinion while also having some advantages, and lastly this notion is very expensive (Scutti).

Every day, animals suffer for our own benefit. There are policies in place, that require inspection and registration of testing facilities, compliance with specified husbandry standards, and efforts to minimize animal pain, among other provisions. However, each day, an animal dies, suffers pain, or is held captive, and that poses an issue of justification. (Orlans, F. Barbara) Furthermore, research has shown that in various animal testing facilities, not even the minimal standards set by the AWA are being met. Under federal law, it is not illegal to burn, starve, shock, poison, isolate, brain damage, or force an animal to be addicted to drugs while undergoing animal testing.

Experimenting on animals dates back to the roman times, but since then the animal experimentation industry has grown massively and is now a multi-billion dollar industry. Every year millions of animals are killed in laboratory experiments worldwide. Animals are sometimes skinned alive and left to bleed to death. I decided to conduct this research because I worry about animal welfare. There are many different scenarios in which animals are experimented on. These include Medical research where testing on animals is not aimed at finding cures but finding ways of improving treatments to reduce things such as side effects. Medical testing on animals has and will continue to help the future of medicine. Genetic engineering is the fastest growing area of the animal experimentation franchise, already there are thousands of genetically modified animals. Product testing is where products such as makeup

Animal testing remains a controversial subject and objections have been present virtually since its beginning. Over the past decades, medical and cosmetic companies have increased the number of animals in labs to test the effectiveness of their products. It is undeniable that animal testing has contributed to our advances in the fields of science; however, this method is not always requisite. Many times, animal data is unreliable because the anatomic, metabolic, and cellular differences between animals and people which may mislead researchers into disregard potential cures and treatments. Commonly animals used in experiments are forced to a prolonged periods of physical restraints, inhalation, and food and water deprivation. Large numbers of

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 the American Anti-Vivisection Society there are three main ways animals are used in science; testing, biomedical research and dissection. In this paper I’d like to only focus on animal testing which encompasses using animals to “assess the safety of cosmetic, personal care, household products, chemicals, medical devices, and their component ingredients” ("Testing"). Some believe that this type of animal testing is necessary and in some cases it is even mandatory for certain products. I disagree with the necessity of this animal testing and believe it should be banned in the United States, so I will argue the points in this paper.

In the opinionated world we live in today, a very controversial topic is upon animal testing. Animal testing is also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing. It is the use of animals in experiments that seek to control the variables that affect the behavior or biological system under study. This study often gets confused with field studies in which animals are observed in their natural environments. Experimental research with animals is usually conducted in universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, defense establishments, and commercial facilities that provide animal-testing services to industry. The aim of animal testing differs on a continuum from pure research, done with little regard to the uses to which understanding may be put, to applied research, which may focus on answering some question of great practical importance, such as finding a cure for a disease. Examples of applied research include testing, breeding, defense research, and toxicology, including cosmetics testing. For educational purposes, animal testing is sometimes a component of biology or psychology courses. The practice is regulated to varying degrees in different countries.

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

Every year, there is more than one hundred million animals that are used for a wide varieties of tests. One of them is to test the safety of cosmetics. However, the uses of animals to do tests is a very controversial issue. Many animals, such as rabbits, mice, guinea pigs, and hamsters, get hurt or die because of the testing. Moreover, there are many people who thinks that animals should have their own rights, so people can not use animals for testing. Even though the results of animals’ suffering will help humans determine the safety of cosmetics, there are still many people who think that making animal suffer for our own benefit is very unkind. Animals have been used to do tests a long time ago. However, many companies