As humans, a habit we can’t help but do is turn a blind eye to something we might not want to accept. Now turning this blind eye is just us not wanting to accept or acknowledge how bad something might actually be. If it’s not turning that eye away from something as bad as fast fashion, when your favorite artist says a really bad statement, or something such as animal testing. Just because we’re not looking at it, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. 

When going through the countless options of makeup, body wash, or shampoo we look at, glancing at whether it has been animal tested might not be at the top of our priorities. With turning a blind eye, you’re mainly turning away from knowing the severity of the issue. 

So what is animal testing? Animal testing isn’t just rubbing a revlon lipstick on a bunnies lips, or putting eyeliner on their eyes, its unethical procedures performed on animals. Procedures such as:

• Forced chemical exposure in toxicity testing, which can include oral force-feeding, forced inhalation, skin or injection into the abdomen, muscle, etc.
• Exposure to drugs, chemicals or infectious disease at levels that cause illness, pain and distress, or death
• Ear-notching and tail-clipping for identification
• Prolonged periods of physical restraint
• Food and water deprivation
• Infliction of wounds, burns and other injuries to study healing
• Behavioral experiments designed to cause distress, e.g., electric shock or forced swimming
• Other manipulations to create “animal models” of human diseases ranging from cancer to stroke to depression
• Killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means

The routine of the procedure is they are first kept in the metal cage, tested on, and typically euthanized after being frankensteined through the testing. Although the people conducting the research don’t normally have ill intentions, the researchers fail to understand that they mostly feel the same things humans do. 

Not to mention that animal testing comes with scientific faults of their own. Animal testing does not reliably predict human outcome. Acetaminophen is found to be  poisonous to cats, but is very therapeutic for humans. Penicillin is very toxic in guinea pigs but has been a crucial ingredient in human medicine. Morphine causes hyper-excitement in cats but has a calming effect in human patients. Oral contraceptives prolong blood-clotting times in dogs, but increase a human’s risk of developing blood clots. There are countless other examples. Even within the same species, similar disparities can be found among different sexes, breeds, age and weight ranges, and ethnic backgrounds.

9 out of 10 drugs that appear to be safe to the animals fail the human critical trials. “ Due to the inherent differences between animals and humans, drugs and procedures that work in animals often end up failing in humans. According to Health and Human Services Secretary, Mike Leavitt, nine out of ten experimental drugs fail in clinical studies because we cannot accurately predict how they will behave in people based on laboratory and animal studies.” 

Realistically, there isn’t much we can do overnight, for now just try and find products that don’t animal test, or educate yourself even further on the subject. The ethics of animal testing is awful and when I think of all of the innocent animals being used daily for our own selfish benefits it disappoints me. We as a society have become so progressive in other things around us and have come so far but are still stuck in the cycle of animal testing. 

Animals ranging from rats to dogs, there are an estimated 115 million animals used each year to make sure products are safe for consumption. The United States alone is responsible for 90% of the animals in the testing labs. With the fast growing market of new products popping up on the regular, it’s no surprise that there are over 260 brands that will still be testing on animals in 2024. 

Please use this link to help the animals in experiments! Easy-ways-help-animals-used-killed-experiments