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Animal testing in cosmetics essay
How animal testing for cosmetics affects the animals
The negative effects of animal testing
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ANIMAL TESTING ALTERNATIVES IN COSMETICS INDUSTRY
Concepts of beauty change among people. However, this idea of beauty sticks to human minds, making it the centre of our lives. Media has been the most influential way to harvest those stereotypes of the perfect image in this society. One of the daily things used by women, although the number of men is growing, are cosmetics. Cosmetics are very handy and affordable ways to improve one's appearance. Mascara, foundation, lotions, creams, and treatments are flooding the market, promising to succeed in making us beautiful. Manufacturing processes for cosmetics vary depending on the product. Nevertheless, they all have in common the testing control point, to assure a safe and efficient product. This efficiency and safety is measured in the industry, using principally animals. Animal testing encloses numerous cruel practices, hurting our ecosystem. Some alternatives for reducing and finishing animal testing are, the use of in vitro tissue culture, computer modelling, as well as the usage of natural ingredients in manufacture.
First of all, tissue culture is an effective alternative that rely on the scientific advancements. As evolution happens, we have to consider leaving primitive practices. According to Sun shany, animal testing contributions to medicine are more significant because they allow to grab more information. For cosmetics, in vitro testing is viable. In vitro, as it is explained in the article "The Truth about Animal Testing," published by Best health magazine, is an artificial setting in which human cells and tissue samples serve as testing objects. The results have valuable importance because it documents the cells' reaction, although, it does not provide a whole panor...
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... rights in this respect, animals are the only method to data collection. As for cosmetics, a simple whim to gain confidence and attract others' attention, other possibilities such as tissue culture, technological models, and a natural selection of raw materials are suitable and animal-friendly. Choices that will help in the reconciliation with nature after all the damage caused by human actions. Numerous associations defend animal rights to stop the damage to our environment. Among them the Canadian federation for humane societies specifies, "The CFHS encourages the use of non-animal models wherever possible. When animals must be used, we encourage that the fewest possible number be used." We need to care more about the planet we inhabit. Animals are a gift from mother nature, and we must stop using them for experimentation. We are humans, but inhumane with animals.
SUMMARIZE: The article grants information on new models in cosmetics to take the place of animal experimentation. It goes on to talk about how the European Union has now banned using animal-based test for cosmetic reasoning. Pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies have been using computer-like tools to assess the toxicity it has for years. The author incorporates information on cosmetics and the outlook on further research. ‘According to experts, combination of laboratory-based with virtual work will be the future of testing and is progressing faster than they expected.” (87 words)
The use of animals to test cosmetics is introduced in their article as well. The authors quote a vast amount of credible sources from prestigious universities such as Princeton and from well known animal rights group such as PETA. I will use this as my main source of information.
In many parts of the world, animals are being used in laboratories are still suffering and dying to test cosmetics. In
The ethics behind using animals for experiments and tests has been questioned and debated for years. Many people believe that animal experimentations can be crucial towards medical breakthroughs such as the cure for cancer, HIV/AIDS or asthma. Meanwhile others argue that animals that are used to test cosmetics such as make-up and perfumes are inhuman because is not going to help improve the human race. Animals suffer through multiple types of torture such as being forced to ingest poisonous chemicals, blinded, burned, stapled, and infected with disease viruses. Even though animal experimentation may be considered inhumane to many, animal experimentation is crucial to advancements in medical research and can lead to a better quality of life; on the other hand, animal experimentation should not be used to develop cosmetics because such experimentation is cruel and unnecessary.
“If you want to test cosmetics, why do it on some poor animal who hasn't done anything? They should use prisoners who have been convicted of murder or rape instead. So, rather than seeing if perfume irritates a bunny rabbit's eyes, they should throw it in Charles Manson's eyes and ask him if it hurts.” -Ellen DeGeneres. Although I probably should be agreeing with Ellen, I feel that animal testing is a good thing. Yes, that may make me sound cruel, but animal testing can bring many benefits to a lot of people. I’m not trying to say that animal testing isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I’m saying that it’s an important thing that we have to do in society to keep us healthy. “About 20 million animals are experimented on and killed annually, three-fourths for medical purposes and the rest to test various products.” -Santa Clara University, Claire Andre and Manuel Vasquez. Obviously, that’s a lot of animals that are being tested on. Yes, I do feel that maybe scientists are going overboard and testing on a few too many animals. But, I still feel that animal testing is a strong factor in human health.
Throughout history, beginning as early as 500 BC, animals have been used to test products that will later be utilized by humans (“Animal Testing” 4), what isn’t publicly discussed is the way it will leave the animals after the process is done. Many innocent rabbits, monkeys, mice, and even popular pets such as dogs are harmed during the testing application of cosmetics, medicine, perfumes, and many other consumer products (Donaldson 2). Nevertheless, there are many people whom support the scandal because "it is a legal requirement to carry out animal testing to ensure they are safe and effective” for human benefit (Drayson). The overall question here is should it even be an authorized form of experimentation in the United States, or anywhere else? The fact of the matter is that there are alternatives to remove animals out of the equation for good (“Alternatives” 1). They are cheaper, and less invasive than the maltreatment of the 26 million innocent animals that are subjected to the heartlessness of testing each year (“Animal Testing” 4). All in all, due to the harsh effects of animal testing, it should be treated as animal cruelty in today’s society.
Each year, thousands of animals are brutally tortured in laboratories, in the name of cosmetic research. A movement to ban animal testing for cosmetic purposes has been gaining popularity, with many companies hopping on the bandwagon against this research. New alternatives have been developed to eliminate the necessity to test on animals. This is only a small beginning of what is necessary to end these immoral acts. Animal testing in cosmetics is useless and cruel, and can be accomplished by other methods of research to end the suffering of animals.
Animal testing has long played a part in the science of testing, and it still plays a very important role in the medical world. Testing on animals in order to create a cure for AIDS is one thing, but testing on animals for human vanity is another. Animal testing is used to test the safety of a product. It has kept some very unsafe substances out of the cosmetic world. However, in this day in age, animal testing is not the only way to test the safety of a product. Animal testing in cosmetics has decreased over the years. However, it is still used by many companies in America. Animal testing is not only cruel, but it is also unnecessary in today’s advanced scientific world.
Simple household items such as lotions, shampoos and cosmetics aren’t very expensive and are within reach for the public, yet the public is not knowledgeable of the fact that the products that they use everyday are put through a series of tests which involve the use of harmless animals. Several large commercial companies do not make products for animals; they decide that using these harmless creatures for the testing of their products, could be cause to be harmful to animals still go forward with these types of procedures on an everyday basis. Although these animals are unable to defend themselves or signs of any form of consent for the near death procedures, these companies find this as a cheap solution for testing their products before placing them on the market. There are many other alternatives to testing animals such as embryonic stem cell research. Animal experimentation is wrong and it can be avoided but companies which are greedy for money chose not to.
It still comes as a surprise to me that with all the technology in today’s society, we are still relying on animals for cosmetic research. Some people think that it is acceptable and even justified to test on mere animals rather than risk hurting people. So, for these kinds of people, animal testing makes perfect sense. However, in my opinion, animals are living creatures and have the right to live out their lives as nature intended rather than simply surviving in cages while being poked and prodded with whatever scientists fancy. I think it is depressing and sort of grotesque that I am using products that have been tested on animals that are even commonly bred as our pets. So, I began my research to find out what companies still test on animals, why they do so, and what other alternatives they could use in place of animal testing.
There are three very important reasons why animals should not be used for testing harmful or dangerous materials. One of these is that testing and its use is trivial in the cosmetic industry. The second reason is that animals have rights and animals can feel pleasure and pain just as humans do. The third reason is that testing is cruel and unusual.
Using dogs in cosmetics testing should be illegal. How many of you have dogs? Well you must have already known that mice and monkeys are used for cosmetics testing. But did you know dogs are used for testing too. Cosmetics like mascara and eyeliner are tested on dogs before they are put on store shelves. More than 65,000 dogs are held in U.S. laboratories each year, with over 25,000 subjected to painful experiments. And 95% of the dogs tested were not protected by the Federal Animal Welfare Act. When testing dogs, they often apply the cosmetics to their eyes and skins to show how it would affect a human. Beagles are the most the popular breed to use because they adapt well to living in cages, and are inexpensive to feed. The laboratories get
Animal testing has become extremely costly. Animal testing results are not quick, especially for cosmetics. When testing a product it needs to be continually applied to detect if it’s going to irritate the skin or eyes. This can take days or weeks. During this time you have to keep the animals alive long enough to see the result. Therefore also having to supply food and water costing even more $$$. For example the eye irritant test involving rabbits to see how a product or chemical will react on human eyes cost around 1,800$ while the alternative in vitro method only cost 1,400$. Not only is the alternative more accurate but its much more cost effective and over time those 400$ will add up. Another common example is the skin sensation test, which is where a product is placed on a shaved animals skin to see how it reacts. The cost for the animal test is 6,000$ and the alternative is only 3,000$. That is a lot of money that could be used to make the product better or for the company to keep.
Beauty product can be defined as cosmetics; materials and devices made and sold for the purpose of enhancing the physical attractiveness of users or in other words, as any product, especially a cream or lotion, intended to improve a person's appearance . We live in society where people nowadays are very obsessed with beauty and spending so much money on beauty products. Since we were children, the society taught us that beauty is happiness, wellness and everything. This creates a mindset that only attractive physical appearance is beauty, even though ‘beauty’ is a very subjective word where it can apply to many things. It is a rare sight these days to
Cosmetic animal testing has been a controversial topic for decades but has recently gained more attention from the media due to oppositional organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Those in favor of animal experimentation make the argument that they are taking animals’ lives to save humans’, but is it really necessary to subject animals to torturous conditions or painful experiments in the name of science? Animal experimentation needs to be abolished because it is unethical and selfish to destroy an animal 's life.