Animal Tesing, Is It A Good Thing

Have you ever wondered where your lip stick comes from or how it is made, or your shampoo, aspirin, dish soap. Well most of these products are made by testing them on animals first to make sure that they are safe for humans. Animal testing has been a big thing in making sure that products will not hurt or kill humans who take or use them. Ever thought about the poor little rats and mice or rabbits that are used in the testing phase. Animal testing is not the most effective thing for testing these products first.

Though some people think that animal testing is the best thing for product and chemical testing, the evidence for their claims does not support their position or the findings of animal cruelty.

Animal testing started numerous years ago to help provide humans with information. The process of animal testing is one of the most disturbing experiments ever done. Many cosmetics and personal care products are made every year and are put onto the market after being tested on animals. Almost every product that there is has been animal tested at some stage in their development. The website titled "Animals in Product Testing" stated, "These products have gone through a long and complex testing process that leaves millions of animals mutilated, burned, poisoned and gassed in outmoded and unnecessary test." (Animals in Product Testing 2004) From these different experiments, animals are often left with different diseases like Syphilis, Herpes, or AIDS. Manufactures of these different products say that they are performing these test to assure our safety for these products. They want to make sure that human are not in any amount of danger. (Animals in Product Testing 2004)

How does the FDA feel about animal testing? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has different laws about the safety of human health. In other words, the FDA and the different laws agree with animal testing. The FDA supports two different acts, the Animals Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy and Human Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. The Animals Welfare Act is to assure the health of humane care and the management of dogs, cats, and other certain animals that are used for research and experimentation. As well as to make sure that humane treatment of animals during the transport to help protect the owners of the animals from theft.(U.S. Fish and Wildlife) The Public Health Service Policy and Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals is a law that assures animal care for farm animals, mice and rats.(Public Health Service...) The FDA feels that if animals are used instead of actual human beings, then there is no risk of taking a human's life. If animals are put under experimentation, then the loss of an animal would not be as devastating as an actual person. As one could see the FDA would rather spare human life then care about people killing innocent poor animals.

The fact that they use the animal testing to ensure that humans do not get hurt or killed is not always true. It has been proven that even though something make it though the animal testing stage does not mean it is safe for humans to take. Dr. John Pippin, a vegetarian for years wrote an article about it. He said in his article that there was this new drug and it had made it through the animal testing stage and they went on to human testing and it severely injured 6 London participants. The reason the people were killed and injured was because the chemicals in the products did not show any side effects on the animals that it was being testing on so they thought it was safe for the next stage in the testing. (Pippin 2006) This just proves that even though something might make it through the animal testing stage does not mean that it is safe for us as humans to take.

The first point on why animal testing is unethical process is because of some of the brutal things that happen in the process. There are certain types of animals they use for certain types of experiments. Some well-known animals that they use for testing are: cats, dogs, mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, sheep, llamas, cattle, owls, deer, monkeys, and other primates. These are not, by any means, all of the animals that they use, just a little list of the ones that they most commonly use. (Animals in Product Testing 2004)

For example, the Draize Test is used on white albino rabbits (S., Jeremy) they use white albino rabbits because of their sensitive eyes and also because the formation of their tear ducts stops tears from draining away all of the foreign substance. In this process, scientists rub shampoo, soap, toothpaste, oven cleaner, lipstick, or lawn products into their gorgeous, red eyes. From this point, scientist records the damage that they observed. This test can last up to eighteen days with the poor animals eyelids held open with a clip. Many of the rabbits end up breaking their necks trying to escape from the horrifying pain. First of all, it is pointless to keep the products in their eyes for that long of a period. There is no way that even a child would have something like that in his/her eyes for very long. The second reason this is unnecessary to do to a rabbit is that the eye tissue of a rabbit is completely different from humans. The pain they go through for no beneficial reason is ridiculous. (S., Jeremy)

Why do companies even agree with animal experimentation? Some companies, like Clairol, demand that they do not use animal testing on their shampoo product, Herbal Essences. Even though they have cut down on animal testing, they have not eliminated the complete line of cosmetics and other products of animal experimentation. There are still a great amount of companies that do still test on animals. Companies like Cover Girl, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Oil of Olay, Oral-B, Playtex Products, Soft-Soap Enterprise, and Suave. (Consumer Companies That Test on Animals) Now think back to the products that you use every day. How many of those products do they test on animals? If you use any products from the list, then all of the products that you use are being tested on animals.

Another element why animal experimentation is wrong is because in multiple ways, it is pointless. The reason that companies even test their products on animals is because they are supposedly watching out for our safety. Most toxic products are tested on different animals. Some toxic products that are used are: soaps and detergents, oven cleaners, and toilet cleaners, among many more. What is wrong with this picture? The website titled, "Animals in Product Testing" stated, "...no amount of animal testing can change the fact that many of these products are harmful if ingested or used in a way not intended by the manufacturer." In other words, there is no reason to force animals to swallow any toxic products, when no matter what they would harm someone