Animal Testing: Use Your Voice for Those Who Can’t

Have you ever wondered how many animals suffer in labs? It is a good question because there are so many animals in laboratories that records are not kept for all the animals. The number of animals tortured and killed in the United States laboratories is estimated to be into the millions. As you can see, animal testing is an enormous problem and we need to take action now.
Many cleaning products and cosmetic companies still pump their products into animals’ stomachs, squirt them in their eyes, rub them on their skin, or force the animals’ to inhale them. The FDA requires all drugs to be tested on animals. The tests may be important; however animals’ differ from humans in many ways. This makes animal tests unreliable and not safe for the animals or humans. New research methods such as computer models and human studies are more accurate then testing on animals.
The Animal Welfare Act requires all laboratories to report the quantity of animals used in experiments. This helps a little, but the labs exclude rats, birds, and mice. Those animals are used in 80 to 95 percent of all experiments, so we can only imagine how many die annually. Other animals include cats, dogs, rabbits, and many more. There are many different ways to determine whether a product is safe or not. Cell cultures, for example are more accurate, less expansive, and much more humane.
An example of how animals differ from humans can be seen in the rabbit. Rabbits are unable to produce tears so when eye shadows, powders, and other objects get into their eyes, their eyesight weakens and they can possibly become blind. Animal testing is a problem we need to fix. Animals should be treated like humans because they are not only a living thing but a living thing in need of our help.
Companies that do not test on animals proudly state it on their labels. Send back items that you have from companies that do test on animals, and write a letter to them explaining why you won’t buy their products anymore. You can go online and search for a list of companies that do not participate in animal testing. We can speak out and boycott their products, write letters to the companies, and protest. If we do not act soon, millions of poor innocent animals are at loss. Use your voice for those who cannot use their own.