What does Kat Von D Beauty, Lush Cosmetics, Clean Well and The Body Shop all have in common? According to their respective websites, they refrain from testing products on animals.  

Those who are opposed to animal testing believe it is cruel, while those who support it argue that it helps lead to many new discoveries. According to ProCon.org, around 26 million animals are used for scientific and commercial testing each year in the United States.

Animal testing is cruel and unkind. When experimentation does occur, animals are subject to food and water deprivation, forced inhalation, infliction of burns, wounds and more. Our country needs to make a change and fully stop harming the animals. 

Some discoveries made from testing on animals do benefit humans — however, they come at the terrible cost of awful treatment and suffering of other animals. According to the California Biomedical Research Association, animals are biologically similar to humans. Scientists are causing pain to beings who also feel and think. Humans are in effect hurting other members of their group, other mammals.

Animal testing does not always lead to accurate safety results for a product. According to Planet Science, patients have suffered life-threatening side effects from a drug that during testing had no effect on an animal. Given this lack of reliability and the suffering that comes with it, animal testing is not reliable and causes suffering. 

At this point in time, animal testing is no longer necessary. Scientists are able to test products using cell cultures, artificial skin and microdosing, or test a product in small amounts in human blood. For example, Lush Cosmetics uses a panel of humans in order to test their products. It is hard to understand why the world is still testing their products on animals when these alternatives exist.

People may argue that the US already has laws protecting and regulating the way that animals that are tested on.  For example, the United States Department of Agriculture passed the Animal Welfare Act, an act that “regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition [and] transport.” This act states that animals must be provided with care and benign treatment. However, these laws fail to completely get rid of the suffering that the animals go through when used as a test subject. 

We must stop animal testing and the only way this will happen is if people spread awareness of its problems and the suffering that it causes. If people stop supporting companies that do tests on animals by ceasing to purchase their products, hopefully these companies will make the changes that are necessary and no longer inflict pain on animals.

You can spread awareness by educating yourself and others in your community, sharing this article with friends and sending letters to companies that test on animals. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an organization that supports ethical animal treatment, provides a list of companies who do test on animals and has created a letter template for those who want to write to them.

Animals need human support more than ever now; without us, they have no voice.