Animal testing is inhumane an inaccurate – A student report

By Naserian McClurg
8th Grade Student
Amelia Island Montessori School
June 15, 2019 3:00 p.m.

Editor’s Note: Karl Schlobohm’s Eighth Grade students at Amelia Island Montessori School were given an assignment to write on a subject of interest to them. We will post a series of the student’s class assignments over this Father’s Day weekend. We hope you enjoy.

Animal Testing is Inhumane and Inaccurate

Vaseline, Almay, neutrogena, MAC, L’Oréal, and hundreds of other cosmetic brands have one major thing in common. They all test on animals.

The animal testing process costs the USA over 16 billion dollars at taxpayers expense, it kills over 100 million animals each year, and the result is only accurate 40 to 60 percent of the time.

An example of animal testing failing was in the 1950’s when a sleeping pill was made called thalidomide, it was put out on the market after passing the tests conducted on the animals. Over 10,000 mothers gave birth to disabled babies. It was later discovered that the reason this was happening was because of the strong sedatives in the pill yet there were no birth defects on the babies from mice, rats, guinea pigs, and cats unless they were given extremely high doses. There were also animal tests on an arthritis pill called vioxx. For the rats it showed that it protected their hearts whereas when humans used the medicine more than 27,000 people had heart attacks or sudden cardiac deaths before it was pulled off of the market.

Animal testing is not necessary, there are more than 50 different ways to test cosmetic products that are more cost and time effective for the manufacturers. The types of testing are called sophisticated tests. Some of the tests work by having something that they call “organs-on-a-chip”. They contain human cells, that mimic human organs. “Organs-on-a-chip” are usually used for drug testing rather than cosmetics. Another test is called SenCeeTox®, it uses a 3-D human-derived skin model that contains the key traits of human skin. This is used in place of injecting chemicals into guinea pigs and mice. There is also the option of using all natural ingredients so that there aren’t any harmful chemicals that they would need to test. Computer tests are also a reliable option. They simulate human organs and skin so that they are able to test without using animals.

AWA (Animal Welfare Act) has not succeeded in protecting animals from being abused. They protect dogs, cats and rabbits, but not mice, rats and birds. Those animals make up 95 percent of the animals that get tested on.

The animals are given lethal doses to test how much will kill them. They are injected with chemicals that give them mutations. There are toxicology tests that force them to slowly poison to death. These animals have nervous systems and feel pain just as much as humans do. So testing on them and cause intentional pain is inhumane.

Some things that everyone can do to prevent animals getting tested on is staying away from any products that test on animals at all. There are many other products that work just as well while also being cruelty free. Companies that create or send their products through China have tested on animals even if they don’t specifically say that on the product itself. In China it is required that companies test on animals. Places like the European Union, Israel, Norway, India, and some other places have banned animal testing all together. I hope that people consider checking the labels to make sure they are using cruelty free products.