Essay on The Unlucky Animals Used for Testing

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.

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,

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

Throughout history, animal testing has played a monumental role in leading to new discoveries and human benefits. However, what many people tend to forget are the millions of animals that are tortured and killed during these painful, deadly experiments. Imagine being a family pet, but instead of living in a warm home with a caring family, living locked up in a small metal cage, only being let out to swallow harmful chemicals, to be poked and prodded with needles, and to be injected with chemicals. And after the animal’s use for testing is over, they are either killed or die because of their injuries. This is an impractical, unsafe way to find out the safety of everyday products. Animal testing is an impractical, inhumane method of cosmetic testing not worth the resulting multitude of animal deaths when humans could easily be substituted as the test subject.

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,

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.

“Each year, more than 100 million animals—including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds—are killed in U.S. laboratories for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing” (PETA 1). For a countless amount of years companies, scientists, biology teachers, and plenty of other people have been using animals for animal experimentation. There are many people are for animal testing when it comes to testing for medical reasons, but when it comes to testing for cosmetics several people oppose animal testing. Tons and tons of animals are killed each year due to animal experimentation, and it is time to put it to an end. When it comes

In fact, these methods could replace animal testing and make the incredibly cruel method completely obsolete. Though finances appear to be an issue with this idea, it is also clear the alternatives are a wise investment for cosmetics companies, providing them with even safer testing methods that allow them to sell to markets that have already banned animal testing. These countries that have banned animal testing in cosmetics have realized that scientists can successfully determine safety of products without having to harm millions of innocent animals annually. Not only can the tests take the life of these poor animals, but they also cause extreme suffering in the process. Essentially, animal testing is torture, which is why organizations such as the Humane Society, PETA, and countless others fight for the rights of these animals, the right to live without having to undergo the stress and pain of these tests. Yes, almost everyone agrees that the tests performed on these animals are cruel, but many do not know what to do about it. The first step in banning animal testing in cosmetics is to help cosmetics companies see why abandoning this method is beneficial to them. Americans need to begin boycotting companies that use animal testing and turn towards cruelty-free companies. By supporting these companies, the average citizen can make cosmetics companies want to abandon animal testing as well. Likewise, citizens should show their support for organizations against animal testing such as PETA and the Humane Society. It is important to show the United States government as well as cosmetics companies that citizens and consumers strongly believe that animal testing in cosmetics should be banned in the United States and that they want a change. It is time for cosmetics companies to realize the cruel reality of animal testing and the benefits of the

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”).

Right this second, millions of animals are in cold empty cages waiting to be put out of their pain and misery. Around the country, animal testing trials are going on right now, as we speak. Many do not consider that those animals that are tested on are not taken care of properly, when animals are in pain and scared, they give off negative results, but most importantly, people and animals are different, which creates inaccurate results. PETA is an organization to help protect animals against cruelty. On their website it states, “The only U.S. law that governs the use of animals in laboratories—the Animal Welfare Act—allows animals to be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, forcibly restrained, addicted to drugs, and brain-damaged” (“Animal testing is bad”, n.d., para. 21). We do not protect our animals as well as we should, but on top of that, these animals

Ultimately, in spite of its proponent’s insistence that animal testing is necessary because animals make good models for the human body, and even if it is inaccurate scientist have addressed this with the way that testing data is gathered. Alas, animal testing is inaccurate because of invalidity of their very premise. Animal models are inexact. The costs of animals being used as models for humans are erroneous data, misleading information, and dangerous drugs. Those consequences are too

Animal Testing… If you’re unfamiliar with this practice, it’s when scientists use animals for scientific or commercial testing, which involves harmful experiments on the specimen by force feeding it, depriving it of food and water, inflicting painful wounds to study its healing process, and much more. These animals do not deserve to live through such cruelty and pain so scientists can figure out what happens if you inject lethal doses into innocent animals. Experiments like LD50 involve finding out what kinds of chemicals will kill animals and according to scientist records, fifty percent of these animals that were experimented on by scientists died. Fifty percent. That’s not even where the cruelty ends.

Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation is the process of testing new treatments and medicines on animals. Animal test is a scientific experiment in which live animal such as mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, and baboons is used to undergo testing that is likely to cause them pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm. Scientist use this research to determine what type of diseases affect the human body and what can be done in order to treat these diseases. Testing on animals is not only cruel but can be costly. This is also provides a way to current scientific knowledge of how organisms develop and functions. Study has shown that animals have very similar physiology to humans and therefore, it would make them the perfect candidate for scientist to conduct tests to seek information on how the human body will react to certain substances. Animal testing became a major asset in scientific research, drug development, health and medical research and cosmetic manufacturing. Although, animal testing has brought many medical benefits and has enabled scientist to find treatments for diseases such as cancer, antibiotics for infections, vaccines to prevent some of the most deadly viruses, and surgery for injuries, it is also seen by many as an immoral and unethical approach. Due to the cruelty and suffering on the animal during the experimental process, while yielding very minimal results. As mention by (Author), “Two years ago, independent studies published in PLOS

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.

It is important to note that, during this test, anesthesia is rarely used. Reactions include inflammation, ulceration, rupture of the eyeball, corrosion and bleeding. Some of these studies continue for weeks, and all the while no measures are made to reduce suffering or treat the rabbits. Survival, however, will only lead to an entirely new set of tests, such as the LD50. Lethal Dose 50 refers to the lethal dose that is required to kill 50% of all animals in a test group of 40-200. Animals are force fed substances through a stomach tube, forced to inhale a substance, or have the substance applied to their rectum or vagina. These tests continue until half of the test animals die. During these tests animals will often endure excruciating pain, convulsions, loss of motor function, seizures, vomiting, paralysis and bleeding from every open orifice in the body. Any animals who somehow manage to survive these particular tests are subsequently destroyed. There is also a Lethal Dose 100 test that determines the amount of a test substance required to kill 100% of the test animals. Ironically, results of these tests are rarely, if ever, used in situations of actual human poisoning.