After doing research for a while about which animals are used in the process of animal testing and which companies test on animals, I decided to dive deeper and research how animal testing (or animal trials) actually work.
Unlike the UK, where they have very tight restrictions about animal testing/cruelty, the United States tests products such as "cosmetics, drugs, food additives, supplements, household products, pesticides, and industrial chemicals" on the animals. (According to What is Animal Testing?) In some cases the animals come out fine, but in the more severe cases they can be injured, in pain, or even die from the substances placed on them or fed to them. The basic process, as I understand, goes a little something like this. Say a Lab is testing a new skincare product, on a bunny. They will rub the product on the bunny's face and wait for a while to see the initial reaction. After that, they test how the product reacts to sunlight on the face/skin, or in this case, a UV light is held above the bunny's face. Some skincare items create horrible rashes and blisters when they come in contact with sunlight or UV rays (i.e. Retinol, Accutane). Keep in mind, all of this is happening while the bunny is trapped in a contraption (seen below) where the animal has no way to fight back, or resist the test. Its completely inhumane.
Unlike the UK, where they have very tight restrictions about animal testing/cruelty, the United States tests products such as "cosmetics, drugs, food additives, supplements, household products, pesticides, and industrial chemicals" on the animals. (According to What is Animal Testing?) In some cases the animals come out fine, but in the more severe cases they can be injured, in pain, or even die from the substances placed on them or fed to them. The basic process, as I understand, goes a little something like this. Say a Lab is testing a new skincare product, on a bunny. They will rub the product on the bunny's face and wait for a while to see the initial reaction. After that, they test how the product reacts to sunlight on the face/skin, or in this case, a UV light is held above the bunny's face. Some skincare items create horrible rashes and blisters when they come in contact with sunlight or UV rays (i.e. Retinol, Accutane). Keep in mind, all of this is happening while the bunny is trapped in a contraption (seen below) where the animal has no way to fight back, or resist the test. Its completely inhumane.
One of the first articles I found was from Time.com, (the website for Time Magazine) done by Laura Blue in 2008. It had some interesting information about how much animal testing really tells us as humans. The first thing that caught my eye was that, "the basic reason for animal trials is to determine two issues before any new compound is introduced into a human: safety and efficacy, whether a compound is safe for human ingestion and also whether or not a product works for its intended purpose." (How Much Does Animal Testing Tell Us?)Blue also draws an interesting conclusion in the article that the human body is the ultimate model, because without the final human trials a product cannot be deemed safe. Also, some things that are toxic to animals are in fact very safe for humans to eat, drink etc. (ex. "chocolate, which is very safe for humans, is not safe in dogs") and vice versa. I'm sure that there are a few things that animals can handle that would cause a human to lose their life if they were to ingest it. So why not just cut out the "middle-man" and just test products on humans who are willing to go through the process? It seems that there is no easy way out of this one because if we stop testing on animals then humans will have to undergo a huge risk if they want to participate in studies/trials. However, if we continue to test on animals, it gives (usually) an accurate reading of what is going to be safe for humans to use, but at the same time it's hurting innocent animals along the way.
Most of the information I have come across while researching animal testing has been about rats and mice being used. This quote, in the Times article, gave a great explanation of why so many of these little animals are used. "Rodents, particularly mice, have very short life spans, so you can see how a compound would react in a young animal, then in the same geriatric animal, and then in the next-generation animal, all in a time frame that is reasonable. Then if a product or a compound is determined to be safe in a rodent, another species is used."(Sources: Time Article/2nd Picture: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1815241,00.html Second Picture: http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_02/testingREX_468x306.jpg)
If it weren't for animal testing some medicine would not have been able to be tested as safely on humans. What do you think of the pros of animal testing? They may have saved more human lives in the long run.
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