Animal testing is one of the most cruel acts that is taking place all over the world. Although the majority of the public are against animal testing, it continues to take place - Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and L'Oreal to name a few. Animals, such as rats, mice, hamsters, rabbits, dogs, cats, non-human primates, frogs, sheep and cattle, are all subjugated to being routinely poisoned, burnt, and killed to test chemicals. Animals can develop painful skin and eye irritations, developmental abnormalities, cancer and death - all the while no pain relief is given, leaving animals to languish in pain. It is a horrible form of torture imposed on animals who can feel and understand pain, and it is not unknown to the general public, so how is it still allowed to continue? The National Institutes of Health in the US are the world's largest funder of animal experiments; the military uses it to test warfare; private companies use it to test household products and cosmetics; agricultural companies do it to test how animals can produce more eggs, wool, milk, or meat; and it is used during education and training like biology classes.
Many people actually approve of animal testing because they justify it as serving a greater purpose for humans - now, beside the fact that this arrogantly view is that humans may do untold torture on other animals because we feel we are superior is wrong in itself, animal testing isn't even reliable! Since there are enormous physiological differences between say a rabbit and a human. For example, more than half of the prescription drugs approved of by the Food and Drug Administration between 1976 and 1985 were withdrawn from the market or relabeled because of the serious side effects they had on humans. These drugs had all been tested on animals with no side effects recorded. Drugs like thalidomide, Zomax, and DES all proved dangerous for humans, but not animals.
And it's not like there aren't alternatives either. This cruel and archaic practice could be thrown out, and other practices that are more accurate, less expensive, and less time-consuming could replace it, such as computer simulators and imaging techniques, studies of human populations, clinical research, in vitro research, and replacing animals with human cells in safety tests.It is unconscionable that animal testing still continues, when it is plainly a cruel and unnecessary practice that puts thousands of animals in constant pain and suffering, and the outcomes aren't even reliable.
More information can be found at any of these websites:
Johns Hopkins Centre for Alternatives to Animal Testing - http://caat.jhsph.edu/
Research Without Animals - http://www.humaneseal.org/
Animals Australia - http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/pledge/animal-testing/
Alternatives to Animal Testing - http://www.pcrm.org/resch/anexp/index.html
Cruelty Free Products -http://www.choosecrueltyfree.org.au/list.html
These pictures are all forms of experiments on animals. For more go to www.veganpeace.com
