The Cruelty of Animal Research, Testing, and Experimentation

Every single year one hundred million animals or more are tested on to “advance” pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and other products but the vast majority, up to 92%, of the time they fail on humans in clinical trials. These animals are not only tested on but are usually given lethal doses, crippled, abused, and eventually killed. The Animal Welfare Act is in effect but the animals protected by it can still be tested on because a valid alternative is not required by law. One of the most well-known tests is the Draize irritation test where an animal, most often a rabbit or rodent of some sort, is held down with their eyes fixed open while a new product is dripped into

Approximately 26 million animals are used every year in the United States alone for research and commercial testing (“Background of the Issue” 1). For years, legislators have debated the pros and cons of animal testing, and laws were passed to attempt to fix the inhumane treatment of the cute, innocent testing subjects, the animals. Although the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) was revised numerous times, “the species most commonly used in experiments (mice, rats, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians) comprise 99% of all animals in laboratories” and are the animals that are specifically exempted from protection under the act (“Experiments on Animals” 2). A simple fix to animal cruelty during testing is to use alternative methods since human and animal bodies already vary greatly. For years, animal testing was the best option because there was no alternative to testing on a living, whole-body system; however, in the age of technology, there is no reason for millions of animals to be killed due to the severity of the testing. Therefore, animal testing should be banned because alternative methods provide more accurate results since human bodies are very different than animal bodies; furthermore, animal advocacy organizations should promote cruelty-free products more so customers know what to purchase and use.

The Draize Test is an acute toxicity test widely used by cosmetic companies to test whether their products will cause irritation or other side effects in our eyes. As FDA states “In the eye version of the test, rabbits are placed in restraining stocks so that they cannot wipe their eyes. Their eyelids are pulled apart, and the substance is rubbed onto the eye.”.

In 1944 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) toxicologist John H. Draize created the Draize Test to diagnose effects of new cosmetics developed. This test is still used by some companies today despite it being known as a painful test. The test procedures require for the substance being tested put under the animals eye or skin for hours on end to

Animals are given high doses of these chemicals such as lab rats by force feeding them. They can experience diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, seizures, paralysis, and bleeding from the mouth, nose, and genitals before they die (peta.org:product testing). Rabbits are used mostly for eye and skin irritation research. They have products leaked into their eyes and put onto their skin. Scientists then

“The Draize Eye Test is used to test shampoos, weed-killers, pesticides and household detergents. The substance under test is sprayed or instilled into one eye of a rabbit. Generally, no anesthesia is administered and the test often proceeds for 7 -14 days, during which the cornea, iris and conjunctiva are examined for signs of opacity, ulceration, hemorrhage, redness, swelling and discharge. The rabbit’s eye is then monitored over several days for signs of healing or deterioration. Typical reactions include tears, swelling, inflammation , bleeding and even blindness. Not only does this test cause immense suffering to the animals used, but it is also known to be unreliable and imprecise”(onegreenplanet). Animals are being tested on and being killed for humans humans don’t deserve all the animals in the world they are alive for a reason. And NO that reason is not for them to be tested on the reason they are alive is for them to live the best possible life they can, and same goes for

Gerhard Zbinden, a toxicologist described that “the testing of just one substance can involve using up to 800 animals.” The pain and suffering that the large amount of these animals go through is not worth the possible benefits to humans. When animals are used for product toxicity testing or laboratory research, they are forced to undergo painful and deadly experiments. The most common product safety tests are the Draize test and the LD50 test. Rats and mice are usually used for this experiment. Since both trials are the most painful and deadly of all, they are often avoided but still performed. During an LD50 test, tubes are attached to the esophagus of the stomach and force fed chemical products, causing the animals to then suffer with discomfort and pain throughout different parts of the body. The Draize test determines the consequences of getting a chemical into a human’s eyes. In order to determine the eye irritancy of a product, scientists place it into a rabbit’s eyes and look out for eye damage. Specifically, swelling, redness, bleeding, and blindness. After performing the Draize test, rabbits’ either often bleed or become blind. They experience these symptoms for up to 14 days until they are evaluated for further internal damage. When performing the Draize and LD50 test, animals are expected to fail. Though, some take days and even weeks to die. During their weeks of slowly dying, the animals’ experience vomiting, diarrhea, and internal bleeding. Because so many animals are forced to go through these intensely painful test runs, animals experimentation ought to end to prevent wate of animals

Every year about 241,000 rabbits are tortured in United States laboratories to test for the effects that household products, such as cosmetics, dishwashing liquid, and drain cleaner will have on their eyes ("Rabbits in Laboratories | PETA.org." 1). Scientists will drip chemicals into the eyes of the animal to see how much irritation it will cause, a process known as the Draize eye irritancy test ("Rabbits in Laboratories | PETA.org." 1). The test is certainly not pain free; it often causes distress, such as redness, swelling, and sometimes blindness. After the rabbits are finished being toyed with, they are killed ("Rabbits in Laboratories | PETA.org." 1). The Draize eye irritancy test is just one of the thousands of examples of profuse

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]

This is an upsetting topic but everyone should be aware of animals being used when purchasing a product. Some products say – no animal testing involved in its development. Product testing is commonly performed on animals in order to measure the effects of the substances used in the making of cosmetics. In performing these tests, substances are placed in the eyes of conscious rabbits to assess damage to sensitive eye tissues. This is very painful for the rabbits, who often scream when the substances are applied and sometimes break their necks or backs trying to escape the restraints.

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

According to PETA, more than 100 million animals suffer and die in the U.S. every year in cruel chemical, drug, food, and cosmetic tests are well as in medical training exercises and curiosity-driven medical experiments at universities. Animal testing has been around for decades, many people believe that animal testing needs to be abolished, but others believe that animal testing is necessary. The idea that animal testing should be eradicated stems from the belief that animal testing is cruel and inhumane. The other side of this argument is that animal testing is a necessity because it allows people to use certain brands of makeup and hygiene products. Animals all over the world suffer from the many experiments they encounter

The most popular argument made against researching on animals is that it is cruel and inhumane. The methods researchers use on animals are very painful. Animals used in experiments are commonly force-fed, forced inhalation of any substance, food and water deprived, prolonged periods of restraint, and purposely caused burns and other wounds to study the healing process. A test that shows its cruelty towards animals is the Draize test. This test involves rabbits; the rabbits are used to evaluate the eyes reaction to cosmetic products. This test involves having the rabbit’s eyelids being held open by clips for multiple days so they wont blink away the product. The test is used to measure

Animal testing causes unimaginable suffering. Many animals used in experiments are force feeding and go through a long physical pain like the infliction of burn and other wounds to study the study the healing process. The cosmetics companies use the Draize eye test, that help evaluate irritation caused by shampoos and other products. Rabbits are more commonly use for this test and their eyelids are held open by clips for many days so they do not blink away the product being

Next, the pain and suffering that experimental animals are subject to is not worth any possible benefits to humans. "The American Veterinary Medial Association defines animal pain as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience perceived as arising from a specific region of the body and associated with actual or potential tissue damage" (Orlans 129). Animals feel pain in many of the same ways that humans do; in fact, their reactions to pain are virtually identical (both humans and animals scream, for example). When animals are used for product toxicity testing or laboratory research, they are subjected to painful and frequently deadly experiments. Two of the most commonly used toxicity tests are the Draize test and the LD50 test, both of which are