Animal testing is one of the most controversial topics of the decade. Many people, especially vegans, protest that it is unethical to do medical and cosmetic testing on animals. Others say that is is necessary to test products on animals because it is against the law to test on humans, therefore we do not have a choice. Well, here are seven reasons why it is wrong to test products on animals.
1. Harms Animals
When products are tested on animals, these animals are often harmed severely. These animals experience skin irritation, eye irritation, and being exposed to toxic chemicals. For example, there is the Draize eye irritation and skin irritation test. Rabbits are shaved of their skin and immobilized. Afterwards, a substance is dropped into their eyes or smeared onto their skin and the reactions are recorded.
2. Kills Animals
Millions of innocent animals have been killed because of companies who choose to test products on animals. Some of these animals are bred for testing, while some of these animals were taken from the pound. There is the LD50 test, which involves testers giving animals huge, unrealistic doses. In real life, there is very little chance of a human being exposed to these high levels of chemicals because of the product.
The testers force the animals to eat the substances, and then they record how many animals died from the substance. Believe it or not, but the LD50 test still goes on today.
3. No Consent
Unlike informed humans, animals are completely incapable of giving consent to having a product tested on them. They have absolutely no say in the matter, and are often hurt or even killed during the experiment. These animals never agreed to be testees, and what they are doing will not benefit them at all. Basically, we are forcing animals to be testees, so the human race could supposedly benefit.
4. Not Always Effective
Animal testing is not always effective. There are animals that are similar to humans, such as monkeys and other similar species of animals. However, there are many big differences that exist between us and animals, making animal testing not very efficient. What harms animals may not harm us, and vice versa because we have many significant differences.
5. Alternatives
Instead of testing products on animals, scientists are capable of producing alternatives that are not harmful to animals. For example, they can use computer programs and stem-cell research as alternatives to animal testing. Some scientists are considering micro-dosing as an alternative. Micro-dosing is where a small amount of skin is collected and some of the product is exposed to the skin.
Unfortunately, these alternatives are not proven to be as effective as animal testing. However, changes and improvements are being made to these alternatives all the time.
6. Misleading
Animal testing can be extremely misleading when it comes to whether or not a product will negatively affect a human. Human product testing and animal product testing only agree with each other 25 percent of the time or even less. About 90 percent of stillbirths are related to drugs that were said to be safe because of animal testing. Also, animals catch less than two percent of the sicknesses humans can catch.
7. Not Required
Finally, animal testing is often not required. According to the United States Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, household products and cosmetics do not need to be tested on animals to be eligible to be released to the public.
There are many things that are wrong with testing products on animals, such as the fact that many animals are killed and harmed. Animal testing is unethical, misleading, not alway
This article was written by Jet Russell who blogs for Huntington Life Sciences Company. In his spare time he likes to write articles on all different topics on things that interest him – from Search Engine Optimization to Gardening, and in this case, what people should know about product animal testing.
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