Reptiles, amphibians, fish, rats, and mice make up about 85% of the testing population in any given year. Though animal composition is not completely similar to human beings, it is just sufficient for scientists to use on tests to see how cosmetics would work on humans. Aids Research Without being able to test products on animals before releasing them to the public, it is difficult for researchers to make an educated guess about their safety. It leads to animal death. Yes, many of these times the animal is inflicted with the condition on purpose, but once a cure or treatment is found they receive it.
Opponents of animal testing say that it is cruel and inhumane to experiment on animals, that alternative methods available to researchers can replace animal testing, and that animals are so different from human beings that research on animals often yields irrelevant results. You can see both the sides of animal testing facts tilt the scales of the balance equally. Insulin, for example, was discovered through an experiment where dogs have their pancreases removed. Although animal activists primarily are concerned with the good and welfare of animals, advocates in favor of the research prioritize human lives and advancement in health. Animal testing in cosmetic industry as well as a household products is not worth the life of a poor animal. Also, some claim animal experiments can be misleading as an animal's response to a drug cannot be absolutely similar to a humans.
With stem cell research and genetics getting a push, animals are subjected to further animal cruelty. While there are trials that are painless, where animal subjects are returned to wherever they were taken from afterwards, this is not always the case. List of Cons of Animal Testing on Cosmetics 1. In vitro in glass testing, such as studying cell cultures in a petri dish, can produce more relevant results than animal testing because human cells can be used. Humans and animals are also biologically similar, having the same set of organs, bloodstream and central nervous system, which is why they are affected with the same diseases and health conditions.
Artificial human skin, such as the commercially available products EpiDerm and ThinCert, is made from sheets of human skin cells grown in test tubes or plastic wells and can produce more useful results than testing chemicals on animal skin. As you can see, some animals are killed immediately after each test and sometimes suffer from injuries and chemical poisoning, forcing them to live the rest of their lives in captivity. Contagious diseases like smallpox, measles, chickenpox, rubella, polio, rabies, mumps, etc. It has been proven that over 92% of drugs that claim to pass the animal trials fail when tested on humans by the Humane Society of the United States. A new and growing trend in the medical field right now is genetic testing. In Asian markets, powdered calcium is a popular commodity, often spooned into a pot of rice or soup. Some nations have an average life expectancy of over 80 years.
Testing on humans is highly expensive. Chimpanzees share about 90% of their genetic make up with humans. An estimated 26 million animals are used every year in the United States for scientific and commercial testing. Some experimentation also involves using lethal doses of certain chemicals to determine how much can kill animals. The ethical treatment and testing on animals is a widely controversial subject in the field of zoology.
Many scientists stated that breakthroughs in medicine by animal testing could have still been accomplished sans the procedure. Why would we sacrifice the safety, well being, and lives of so many innocent animals just so we can have new non essential items? Though this is being restricted in most countries, still it is inevitable. Testing animals to see if a product is safe may be better than testing humans first, but that also means the life of an animal is devalued. Some animals, however, are more preferred by laboratories. Without a doubt, animal testing on cosmetics is a very controversial topic, where there are many people who are seeing some benefits and there are others who are seeing it as unnecessary, considering there are alternative solutions.
It provides benefits to the animals themselves. Especially because these choices are cheaper, more reliable and do not harm animals. Millions of them would have died from distemper, rabies, leukemia, tetanus, infectious hepatitis virus, parvo or anthrax. Considering that human beings can live up to 80 years or more, scientists who are conducting tests would be dead before they can gather results. But, as English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham puts it, it is not a question of whether they can talk or reason, but whether or not they suffer. The animal which shares the most similar patterns for diabetes is a cat; cats who become overweight do indeed become predisposed to the same kind of diabetes that humans do in the same situation. The Anderson Cancer Center also associated the hepatitis B vaccine with tests that were conducted on chimpanzees.
According to some scientists, cosmetic testing on animals before introducing the products to the public is necessary or people would be exposed to cosmetics that are potentially harmful. Animal testing on cosmetics is related to a lot of aspects of the manufacturing process of these products, which is performed for the individual ingredients within their formulas. Similarly, testing cannot accurately prove the implications of drugs and procedures on humans. Therefore, if the usefulness of animal testing is in question, then animal testing should be reconsidered. It is important to ask why we are ethically entitled to value human lives above animal lives.
Although, it is claimed none of the animals were hurt in the test, but how can one be 100% sure? As it helped produce medicines for humans, it is also the same with animals. The product may harm or benefit the animal, but not a human. Research animals are cared for by veterinarians, husbandry specialists, and animal health technicians to ensure their well-being and more accurate findings. Cruel and inhumane treatment Protocols in animal testing are often painful to the test subjects. It tends to use inhumane treatment.