Ashley Fung

Kim-Linh Vu
Vi-Linh Vu
Background Information
For decades, people have been using a
nimal testing as a way to test new medicines,
products, and chemicals. Animal testing is the procedure where animals are taken and
subjected to experiments that include drugs and toxins. D
uring this process, animals are put
through pain and torture, and sometimes experience deformities, or even death. Most of these
animals do survive in the end, but are reused in future experiments. These t orturous situations
may include forced feeding, radiation exposure, toxic gas inhalation, and much more.
Approximately 115 million animals are killed each year, and a
re used in labs globally. S
ome
animals that are used include guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, dogs, pigs, monkeys, c ats and
nonhuman primates. Even though animal testing continues to be used all over the world for a
variety of different products, there are many problems and complications that result from it. For
example, the way an animals body functions is different from a human, so t he tests are never
100% accurate.
Major Findings
Painful Procedures
Moving more deeply into the case of animal testing, there are a lot of specific kinds of
torture that animals may experience during the process. According to h
si.org, these experiences
may include:
forced chemical exposure
chemicals get rubbed into eyes
injection of chemicals
genetic manipulation
tail-clipping
intentional infliction of any sort of pain (wounds, cuts, etc)
no food and water; neglect
Death
No matter how violent or moderate the experiments are, they have the possibility of
causing harmful side effects like distress and discomfort. The list above provides some of the
procedures animals may go through, but all of them share some experiences in common. The
definite or inevitable events or feelings the animals will encounter consist of unnatural lifestyles,
constrainment, stress, and pain. At this point, death probably seems like a better option than
going through the sorts of misery acquired from testing.
Types of Animals and Products
Clearly, there are many harmful results and experiences that come from animal testing.
To further extend on this topic, there are many different types of products that are tested on
animals; some of them are so common that most people would not suspect that they are
products whose companies participate in the practice of animal testing. The animals are being
used to test for potential side effects that humans may experience as a result of using the
product. However, since they have different characteristics like anatomy, a humans response to
the product will not be the same, proving these experiments to be unfeasible. In fact, a lot of
major brands use animal testing to test their products. Some of these popular brands include
Aveeno, Olay, Pantene, Pampers, Head & Shoulders, LORAL, Listerine, and much more.
Also, there arent any labels to indicate that such products have used animal testing. This is a

major reason for why most of us dont realize that the products we use daily were possibly
tested on animals. The many types of products include:
Cosmetics
eye shadow, mascara, lipstick, etc.
Household products
Windex
Post-it Notes
laundry detergent
lotion
Pampers
Chapstick
Listerine
Candles
Deodorant
air fresheners
Shampoo
There are a variety of animals being used in all sorts of testing according to w
ww.hsi.org,
Many different species are used around the world, but the most common include mice, fish,
rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, farm animals, birds, cats, dogs, mini-pigs, and non-human
primates (monkeys, and in some countries, chimpanzees).
Differences Between Humans and Animals
Not only is animal testing cruel and brutal to the animals, the testing is also i neffective.
According to an article by The Baltimore Sun about animal testing, We have spent billions of
dollars to cure cancer in mice, but so far have failed to replicate human cancer in any animals,
let alone close in on a cure. Human bodies and animal bodies have two completely different
forms and functions.
Different body structures
Different way of functioning
Different cellular structure
Genetically different
In other words, using animals as models to develop human medications are always
bound to fail because of the differences in our bodies. Studying diseases through animals can
give us inadequate and erroneous information. Therefore, it is much more effective to use
adult stem research, because there are no failures related to this, and it has a much higher
possibility of giving applicable i nformation.
Alternatives
Furthermore, alternatives like i n vitro testing (in glass), could replace the testing of
animals, and not only that, it also produces b
etter results because human cells are used. An
experiment on rats, hamsters, mice, monkeys, and guinea pigs revealed that there was no
connection between glass fibers and cancers. An i n vitro test obtained from cultured human skin
cells resulted in a more accurate way of finding chemical irritants than animal testing. EpiDerm,
an in vitro model system for chemical and skin care product testing, found all the chemicals that
irritate the human skin, while tests on rabbits only found 10 out of the 25 chemicals that affect
the skin.
According to http://www.neavs.org/alternatives/in-testing, it states that the use of human
tissue was also found to be more accurate than animal models during toxicity testing. The

Lethal Force 50 (LD50) is a test where animals are forced to consume toxic substances, in
which around 50% of them are killed. But a Cytotoxicology Laboratory in Sweden developed
another method instead of using LD50. The tests precision rate at the highest was 85%,
compared to the LD50 precision rate at about 61-65%. This test uses donated human tissues,
and is far more accurate than animal testing. Fortunately, the development of alternative
methods are growing and increasing in quality, but there is still a lot of more work to be done.
Examples of alternatives that could possibly replace animal testing in the future include:
In vitro - test methods and models based on human cells and tissue cultures.
Computer models and simulations - conduct virtual experiments on computer models
of the organ system
Cell cultures - cells are grown into 3D structures that could mimic human organs
Alternative
Ways to Publicize the Issue
Make the Issue More Relevant
There are many ways to put a stop to animal testing. One of the few ways is, to find an
effective alternative that could possibly replace animal testing worldwide. According to
https://speakingofresearch.com/extremism-undone/alternatives, Animal research is very
expensive. By comparison, replacement methods tend to be much cheaper and thus academic
researchers and pharmaceutical companies will prefer to use these cheaper replacements
wherever possible. As students, we cant do much to find these alternatives, because of the
limited amount of materials and education. Therefore, we must publicize this issue as much as
we can to encourage the people in charge to make a difference. We could make people more
aware about this issue by:
Local Government - get with the people in charge of your local government; talk to
them about the issue.
Media Outlets - always searching for something relevant; reach out to them and ask
them to profile your issue.
Cruelty-free products - purchasing products that are not tested on animals
Donating - donate to trustable and reliable campaigns that are related to the issue
Spread the Word - pass the information to your friends and family
Recommendations
In order to discourage companies from using animal testing as a way to test their
products, people should try buying items from companies that are cruelty free. If enough people
purchase products from these companies, it might motivate companies that still perform tests on
animals to end their ways. However, a lot of us may think that one person buying from a cruelty
free company isnt going to make a difference. But if we imbed the fact in our brains that every
person contributing to this cause will have an impact on it, most likely more people would be
willing to help. According to http://www.peta.org/, companies that are cruelty free include:
Kylie Cosmetics
Bath&Body Works
Trader Joes
Lush
Burts Bees
Elf
Wet n Wild
Giovanni

The Body Shop

Toms
Lush