Every single year more than 100 million animals such as mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds are killed just in the United States for experimentation and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing. This industry is horrific and extremely inhumane. Innocent animals in laboratories often undergo having their skin and fur burned off, spine crushed, forced to inhale toxic fumes, are restrained, and are painfully poked and prodded to death. Not only are these animals tortured, but they are completely deprived of everything important as they are confined in cold cages, isolated from others, and psychologically traumatized.
A Research Center found that 52% of American adults oppose animal testing and the other half of American adults do not oppose it because they feel that animal testing is necessary for medical progress. Conversely, this is not the case. In The Journal of the American Medical Association, it was found that medical treatments developed from animal testing rarely translated to humans and the researchers warned that “patients and physicians should remain cautious about extrapolating the finding of prominent animal research to the care of human disease … poor replication of even high-quality animal studies should be expected by those who conduct clinical research.” Diseases that are artificially induced in animals in a laboratory experiment never translate identically to diseases that occur in humans. Furthermore, humans are animals are different species, so biologically, it is incredibly unlikely that animal testing will produce results that can be applied to humans in a groundbreaking way. For example, National Cancer Institute Director Dr. Richard Klausner states, “we have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans.”
Internationally today, more than 40 countries have passed laws to limit or ban animal testing such as the entire European Union, Australia, India, Brazil, Turkey, The United Kingdom, and Israel. The countries that test on animals the most today are The US and China. Animals should not have to suffer and be inhumanely tested on. There are many alternatives to animal testing out there, such as testing on cell cultures, human tissue, computer models, and volunteer studies. Furthermore, animal-free methods and strategies are often less expensive, faster, and more predictive of human health outcomes. We need to create a worldwide ban on animal testing, which can start with you by only purchasing cruelty-free products. Linked below are online directories of cruelty-free brands. Below is a list of popular brands that test on animals that I would encourage everyone to stop using and supporting.
Brands that Test on Animals:
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Axe
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Benefit Cosmetics
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Bobbi Brown
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Calvin Klein
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Caudalie
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Chapstick
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Clearasil
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Clorox
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Estée Lauder
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MAC
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Maybelline
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Neutrogena
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S.C. Johnson
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Tom Ford
Complete List:
https://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/companies-that-test-on-animals/
Animal testing is sickening and cruel, and I implore you to be more conscious of the products you use and think about the suffering that goes on behind the scenes. No animal should ever die at the expense of a laboratory experiment, especially not for lipstick.
Cruelty-Free Directories:
https://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/list-of-cruelty-free-brands/
Sources:
https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/cosmetics-testing-faq
https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/why-we-do-it/alternatives-anima…