Animal testing has become a norm to lots of companies. More than 100 million animals including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds are killed in U.S. laboratories per year with different types of testing just for human products. People can’t even imagine what the scientists are doing to the animals.
These animals are longing to be free, but instead they are waiting for their next painful torturous procedure. The stress of these experiments and the animals living conditions affects their neurotic types of behavior such as incessantly spinning in circles, rocking back and forth, pulling out their own fur, and even biting themselves. They are treated as just another laboratory equipment that they can disposed of after running experiments on them and killed. More than 100 million animals were killed because of animal testing each year. Animal tests can include forcing rats to inhale toxic fumes, force-feeding dogs pesticides, and dripping chemicals into rabbit's sensitive eyes. Even if a product harms animals, it can still be marketed to consumers just for their pleasure.
Lots of popular stores and brands use animal testing including really popular make up brands, clothing brands and even maybe your shampoo, conditioner, dental care brands.
Out of all those different charts, how many brands that you use frequently did you notice?
From your toothpaste made by Colgate to your deodorant made by Dove, so many brands test on animals that we use every single day.
"Woah... I use these brands everyday, I thought they were animal friendly" an 10th grade ISB student said after seeing the charts. "Oh my, but I am against animal testing" another student responded. Even if you are against animal testing, everyone has bought a product or used a product as a result of animal testing. Everyone has helped the animal testing industry grow, whether they knew or not. Lots of apps and videos are being made now to stop animal testing and to raise awareness about what these animals are going through.
Recently, a new film called “Save Ralph” became viral spreading awareness of animal testing and the harm it can do to animals. The main character, Ralph, is a bunny rabbit vlogging and taking his “viewers” on kind of like a “day in a life” video. It starts off with Ralph in his home, then being grabbed into a lab where he gets tested on. Ralph tries to stay positive but you can see the affect of animal testing and how it effected Ralph. With 98% of google users liking the film, it got spread throughout every social media site, especially instagram.
Famous brands like Gucci, Shein, Bath and body works, Calvin Klein and more use animal testing. It is unnecessary since these animals have lives just like us. While testing on these animals, they don’t give the animals pain relief and if they can’t test on the animals anymore, they leave them there to die. There are over 50 alternatives to animal testing for example, using human blood and tissues from volunteers, using artificial human skin and using existing human and animal data. Some brands have shifted to using the alternatives and they saved hundreds of thousands of animals per year from animal testing. By not shopping at the brands that do animal testing, you can also save so many animals each year. Before you buy products from a brand, check if they are on the cruelty free list or not. Step by step, if everyone buys their products with more caution, animal testing for human products like cosmetics and clothing will slowly disappear.