Animal Testing, Affecting You and Furry Friends

By: Lizzie Lamme 

        Have you ever wondered how companies test their products? Most companies use animal testing. This is a traumatizing situation, killing more than 100 million animals each year. This abuses animals everyday, hurting them in many ways you couldn’t even imagine while also affecting us too.

Animal testing is a form of animal abuse. Animal testing burns, poisons and cripples tons of animals. Some examples include drilling/screwing bolts, electrodes and metal plates into their skulls. Today, many companies still use animal testing for their products, including cosmetics, medications, household products and pesticides. This is causing the death of more and more animals each year. On a cosmetic test during an experiment, the Humane Society Factsheet said that, “chemicals are rubbed on shaved skin or dripped into the eyes without any pain relief.” This only shows us that animal testing is vile and cruel to many animals who aren’t fortunate. Many animals suffer through the process of animal testing, but some of them aren’t even protected either. Some organizations are starting, trying to help animals in need like the ones in laboratories, like AWA (the Animal Welfare Act). Still, even they can’t help most of the animals getting tested.

Many animals have suffered, and some are lucky enough to escape the facilities and live a much happier life than what they had. Many animals are separated from their families while they are still young, only to be led to a facility where they are tortured. They never get to go outside, get their own bed or interact with another animal in their time at the facility. One Green Planet shared a story about a Beagle named Nelly and how she was tortured until she found a new home. The text states, “Nelly was rehomed by the Beagle Freedom Project, an amazing group that works to save beagles who are suffering at the hands of the animal testing industries. In their words, Nelly had a horrifying start in life, as she was used for years as a laboratory test-tube, was mutilated, sold, then abandoned, shot, and ultimately left for dead with two other murdered beagles in a locked crate on the side of a desolate road in Florida. This scenario is all too common for laboratory dogs.” Normally, most of us wouldn’t think animals were treated like this, but, surprisingly, this scenario is “all too common” for dogs in labs.

There are many ways animal testing can affect us too. In the years 2011 to 2013, the National Institute of Health (NIH) division of Intramural Research Laboratories calculated that 1.5 million pounds (give or take) of animal waste was produced from testing. All that waste is reused and goes into our food. All of the food contains chemicals and is intoxicated, poisoned and infected from the tests it’s been used in. This eventually gets eaten by us and might lead to some side effects, such as diarrhea, vomiting, etc. 

        In addition, animal testing also has delayed the discovery of medications that could be helpful to us. This is because animals are different from us, and it isn’t obvious if it will work. Some labs and companies use chimpanzees because they are similar to us, but even using them doesn’t work all the time. According to Abigail Greer, “Relying on animal experimentation in some cases impedes and delays discovery of drugs and procedures that may be beneficial to humans because they fail in animal testing.” Also, 92% of drugs tested don't even get approval for humans to use because they are unsuccessful in testing. This may also lead to the fact that tests may become approved, yet they still harm and kill a bunch of people. For example, the Vioxx drug was tested on animals, and nothing exhibited any damage or showed anything unsafe. They approved the drug, and many humans used this. This caused 140,000 people to have extra heart attacks and 60,000 people to die, all because of the Vioxx drug that was inconclusive. This just proves that animal testing is severe and risky because the more we use animal testing, the more deaths and harmful effects might happen to us.

        Some people began to boycott certain products using animal testing because they know animals' lives are more important than marketing products. A well-known popular makeup brand called NARS was getting hit with a wave of criticism from 8,500 people. NARS said that they were against animal testing, but they wanted to spread their products to China. The only way they could do that was to use animal testing. This caused riots on their Instagram page, and many of the NARS users even started to boycott their products. NARS was trying to figure out a way to use an alternative for animal testing, but if they wanted to sell to the markets in China, there was no other way. This just shows how some people are starting to try and save animals' lives. 

        Overall, more and more people are recognizing the cruelty happening in animal tests, and most are helping to put an end to this horrid situation. 42 countries and ten states (from the US) have banned or put a limit to animal testing, causing many animals’ lives to be saved. From boycotting to adopting, there are many ways we can help put an end to testing on animals and help companies find safer ways to test their products. Animals are suffering 24/7 for products we use everyday. So, the next time you use makeup or one of your cleaners, imagine how much pain and agony our furry friends have gone through for our daily products.