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Javaneh Fakhra
Professor Batty
English 113B
25 February 2016
Ban on Animal Testing!
Animals are being killed for many reasons all around the world. One of the many reasons
is humans. Humans kill animals to benefit from them in a way or the other. Animals are being
killed because of animal testing of cosmetic/medicinal products. Animal testing of medicine
sounds familiar almost to every human being. Most people accept killing animals for their health
but not everybody accepts killing animals for cosmetic testing. Animals (mice, rat, dog, cat, and
etc) should not suffer for testing medicines and/ or cosmetics because they have the right to live
freely just like human beings. My argument is animal testing of cosmetics/ medicinal products
should be reduced in medical fields and ideally removed from the cosmetic laboratories because
no animals genes match human beings perfectly, hurting and killing animals is morally wrong.
Those who believe testing on animals survives human beings lives, are mistaken because
they see themselves superior to animals. They are also concerned that human beings might feel
pain or get injured so they rather do all the horrible testing on animals to keep humans safe,
while scientists know that no animal genes matches human beings perfectly. According to the
article, Bonobos Join Chimps as Closest Human Relatives, Gibbons says, Ever since
researchers sequenced the chimp genome in 2005, they have known that humans share about
99% of our DNA with chimpanzees, making them our closest living relatives. (Gibbons n.pag)
We are still missing 1% genes which makes the scientists take higher risk when testing
medicinal/ cosmetic on animals like chimps. This is a big problem around the world. Those who
think human beings life does have a priority over animals, should reconsider the fact that

humans are being killed because of the wrong animal testing results. Another fact is that testing,
abusing, hurting, and killing animals is morally wrong.
Based on statistics, animal testing of medicinal products is getting reduced in the UK. As
Logan mentions in her article, According to the government, NC3Rs has already invested over
35m (US$60m) and, as a result of this funding, trials into cancer, epilepsy and multiple
sclerosis, as well as toxicity testing, have all used fewer research animals.(Logan 29). His
research shows that UK government has already accepted the reduce of abusing animals in
laboratories, so they decided to spend less money and start building non-living models. UK
government argues that creating non-living models is cheaper than using live animals in the long
run. They are becoming the animal lover country.Although some people might not care about
animals, they might care about cheaper medicines and drugs. The idea of using non living
models in laboratories attracts people who do not care about animals and their rights as part of
the society too because using non living models make medicines affordable for them. For those
of you who do not care about animals and their right to live. They might want to think about
cheaper medicine and lower risk of accuracy of medicines.
A group of scientists and Biotech sector in UK are contributing in a UKs program in
regards to reduce animal use in laboratories. The UK government recommends the researchers to
replace animal cells with human stem cell. They argue that using animal cells kills off a lot of
animals such as mice, rat and etc. (Logan 29). Based on their argument, animal testing of
medicines must be banned while using human stem cell works way better than using animal
tissues. Human stem cell does not kill any human being. It also makes the results of researches
and testing of drugs more accurate.

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Animal testing of cosmetic should not be allowed in any condition. Cosmetic companies
and designers try to validate themselves and their line by testing their cosmetics on animals.
Predicting the toxicity is the concern of scientists when formulating cosmetics. Laboratories
always try to test the formula on an animal that has the closest genes to humans. In the industry
of cosmetics, animals are being used unconditionally. According to Gregory Mones article New
Models in Cosmetics Replacing Animal Testing, reports that a group of cosmetics Europe,
along with a division of the European commission on Research and Innovation, launched a $68
million research initiative to develop lab technologies and computational models capable of
predicting the toxicity of chemicals in humans.(Mone20). Cosmetic and biotechnology
companies are expecting 5years progress for the development of the new models in the cosmetic
industry. This gives people a chance of hope of reducing animal death in near the future.
UK government believes that creating new models in laboratories for cosmetics and
drugs might not be beneficial financially for the government at first, but in the long run, it
requires less money to use non living models rather than animals because animals for
laboratories are being raised different from other animals. They need to be kept in certain
conditions and for certain amount of time in order to be tested for medicine and toxicity.
Scientists feel better killing less animals in the laboratories and working precisely.
Animal testing of medicine and cosmetic does not make sense. Animal testing must be
stopped as soon as possible because they are not necessary for human beings lives. There are
alternatives that can be used to reduce animal death like animal models that has been discussed
earlier. Cosmetic lines and companies might help the society economically. But if we look at
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this issue closer, we may realize that we are basically killing animals to make money. Helping
economy is not only through killing off biotic factors. There are so many other ways to use
animal cells and tissues to test toxicity.
Taking a closer look on the fact that animals are sacrificing themselves to survive human
being kind of hurt some peoples, especially animal lovers feelings. Vegan people do refuse to
eat animals to maintain their health. Anyhow, vegetarian people might not be aware of animals
death in laboratories for medicinal products everyday. Obviously they cannot stop taking
medicines. Laboratories need to take this issue to consideration. Finding another way of using
animal or human cells for testing of cosmetics is not impossible for todays scientists and
technology.
Another article, discusses this issue morally. According to the article Save The Animals:
Stop Animal Testing, the author argues that animal testing is painful. The pain, suffering, and
deaths is not worth the human benefits. They also mention how everybody has a different
perspective of animals and some think they are companions while others think they are meant to
be tested and ultimately killed by humans to further technology.(Save The Animals: Stop Animal
Testing n.pag.). Tom Regan, a philosopher argues, Animals have a basic moral right to
respectful treatment . . . . This inherent value is not respected when animals are reduced to being
mere tools in a scientific experiment. (Orlans 26). As he states that animals have the right to live
freely, he is an animal lover who disagrees with animals abuse, testing, and suffering.
In this world, animals are being killed every second. Some people try to make it look
better while others bring up the real issues of killing, testing, and abusing animals. To create a
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safer, happier world, everybody needs to understand animals do feel pain and uncomfortable like
humans. To ban animal testing of cosmetics, we need to start from ourselves. It is as simple as
reading the ingredients of a makeup product to make sure no animal was involved to make the
product. Taking natural medicines rather than the prescribed medicines. It is a safer alternative
way to stop the animal testing of cosmetics/ medicinal products.

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Works Cited
Gibbons, Ann. "Bonobos Join Chimps as Closest Human Relatives." Science. N.p., 13 June
2012. Web. 1 May 2016.

Hajar, Rachel. "Animal Testing And Medicine." Heart Views 12.1 (2011): 42. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
Logan, Eloise. "Born Free? (Cover Story)." TCE: The Chemical Engineer 876 (2014): 28-31.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
Mone, Gregory. "New Models In Cosmetics Replacing Animal Testing." Communications Of
The ACM 57.4 (2014): 20-21. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
"Save the Animals: Stop Animal Testing." Save the Animals: Stop Animal Testing. N.p., n.d. Web.
23 Feb. 2016.