In my previous post, I spoke a little bit about my thoughts on the use of animals for research, but did not go in depth. To be honest, I do not know much about this other than what my professor from Intro to Animal Science had said. I just know that millions of animals die every year for research purposes which is really sad now that I think about it. Before I begin to google and research about this topic, I am going to mentally prepare myself because I know I may encounter some articles that will either hurt me or get me upset from reading. I am such an animal lover so regardless whether they are mice, dogs, cattle, or rhinos I will feel some type of emotion so bare with me.
There are several types of testing that animals are used for, but for this blog, I am going to focus specifically on cosmetics testing on animals. Cosmetics are products that are applied onto the human body for cleaning or beautification purposes to enhance or improve a person’s appearance. Cosmetics have been around and used for thousands of years. Companies are legally responsible for ensuring their ingredients within the product and finished products are safe for consumers to use without it affecting the human body. The use of animals for cosmetics testing began in the 1940s when many people began to suffer serious injuries from being exposed to unsafe beauty products.
Some of the common cosmetic testing are skin and eye irritation tests. In these types of testing, chemicals are rubbed onto the shaved skin of the animal or dripped into their eyes for a period of days then killed. They also do repeated oral-force feeding studies that look out for signs of illness or specific health hazards such as cancer or birth defects. There are many more forms of testings that animals undergo, but all of these tests can cause tremendous pain and distress including blindness, sore bleeding skin, internal bleeding, and even death. The most disturbing thing is some companies will not provide pain relievers for the animals after they have been undergoing the extreme testings.
Today, many cosmetic companies do not need to test their products, but some continue to do so as a form of legal protection against a lawsuit in case a product harms a person. Cosmetic companies also may continue using animal testing if they use new chemical compounds in their products. However, many companies have passed laws banning cosmetics testing on animals. Many countries such as the European Union, Israel, and India have all banned the sales of any cosmetic that have been tested on animals. Some companies such as LUSH and Paul Mitchell, who are cruelty-free companies, have denied their sales in countries such as China until their law for animal testing has changed.
Now we are going to look into the laws that “protect” animals in research or testing purposes. As stated in the previous blog, the Animal Welfare Act is the only federal law that determines the treatment of animals in research, exhibitions, and transports. However, the Animal Welfare Act provides very minimal protection for certain species and for some reason excludes rats, mice, and bred species used in research when it estimated that about 90% of animals in laboratories are made up of from those animals. The act sets minimum standards for housing, feeding, handling, and their well-being. It also does not speak about the amount of pain or distress an animal can undergo when they are being used for testing.
There are not many laws that protect animal use for cosmetic testing or overall research purposes, but there is a law that can put an end to animal testing forever. It is called the Humane Cosmetics Act. If the law was enacted, it would prohibit animal testing for cosmetics in the United States as well as imports of any cosmetics that had animal testing done. The thing that is preventing the act to be enacted is getting legislators to support this movement. If it were passed, it would save and prevent millions of animals from being put through unnecessary pain.
My thoughts on this is that there should be more laws that protect animals used for any form of testing or research purpose. It is so selfish to put these innocent animals under bad living conditions and dreadful pain for a product that goes on our body for a short amount of time. The Animal Welfare Act should be revised and have more protection for the animals. Companies should also move onto using non-animal tests. It is said that non-animal tests give faster results and are cheaper which is both more beneficial to companies. I just believe it is so unfair to those animals to have to put under those circumstances.
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