Is Animal Testing the same as Animal Abuse?

By Molly M.

 

         Have you ever put on your face care product or even washed your hands and thought it was magically good and healthy for your skin? Well, actually, that one product goes through a series of tests on different animals.  The laboratories test some diseases on these animals to see how we can react to them, as well as other chemicals, makeup products and skincare products.

Animal testing is done in a lab with scientists and a lot of different types of animals. The main animals are rabbits, rats, and mice that get tested. But even domestic animals are tested too.  The cosmetic industry estimates that 100,000 to 200,000 animals get tested each year just to suffer or die. Typically they are rodents like mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and mice.  These animals are tested with different types of makeup, skincare products, and fragrances because animal skin is the “same” as human skin. One single chemical they test on animals can kill up to 10,000 animals.

You come in contact with bad and toxic chemicals every single day; the chemicals that they test on animals most likely have these same chemicals. Most of the time, animal testings are miss leading, and humans get harmed while using the product from inaccurate detail and results on what the testings give back to them.  More than 90% of animal testing is not accurate and fails. This leads to human injuries.  Scientists that do these tests are saying that these chemical tests are not working as well as they want them too.  92% of the time, even after animal testing, the chemicals, makeup, and skincare products almost always fails to get on the market. These scientists assume we are just giant rats and animals. But really our skin isn't even close to the animal's skin they are testing on.The diseases they are also testing on animals are never the same as the diseases out of the laboratories, and the results that the tests produce are never equal to how our skin and body would react to it. They test drug development in cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, traumatic brain injuries, alzheimers, and inflammatory conditions.  

Every year, about 115 million animals get tested, and 110 animals die. So that leaves five million animals trapped in the laboratories or let out. Some animals don't even die, but they are injured for the rest of their lives, suffering. In the United States alone, over one million animals are held captive, including 100 million rats and mice. After every experiment of a makeup product, fragrance, or skincare product, if the animal's condition is very bad, the scientists do recovery surgeries on them, but some don't even live. The recovery surgeries put the animals in lots and lots of pain that can be life-long. The surgeons make these animals inhale toxic things, crack their spines, drill holes into their skulls, and get their skin burned off. The places where they do these things are usually where the disease, makeup product, or skin-care product tests go wrong and they try to make it better. 

Have you ever seen a little bunny rabbit on your shampoo bottle or your favorite makeup product? That is there because the company that you use is cruelty-free, and they don't test on animals or hurt them for their product. If you want to try to find this symbol on your products, it will either be on the front or back of the bottle. Or you can just search it up.

Animal testing is a huge deal around the world and mostly in the United States.  These animals are suffering day by day for the chemicals we use on our face. Next time you are laying on the couch with your little puppy, remember that animals just like them are going through lots of pain for our great skin products and makeup.