Animal testing: malicious or a necessity?

Stop, before you reach for that nailvarnish! If you look carefully at the label, check to see whether or not it specifies if this product you hold has been used on animals or not to see if it is safe for humans.

If it doesn’t specify against animal testing, or have the company logo of an against animal testing such as The Body Shop, it probably has!

You may think that this is cute; some of you may even find it funny. Though obviously photoshopped, it is dangerously close to the truth. The perfumed lipstick and colourful eye shadow isn’t hurting the dog, so what’s the problem?

This is how we make our makeup safe to use.


For these products to be safe, rabbits have to suffer ulcers in their eyes, small rodents such as mice suffer burnt skin, and very little get away with simple stress-related hair-loss as a result of such cruel testing.

Not in the name of science, but more so of vanity, cosmetic products are poured into the sensitive areas such as eyes and rectums of animals to determine the harmful affects that might be caused, often without anaesthesia.

Although animals possess the same feelings and widely the same emotions as humans, the physiological differentiation between humans and animals is drastic. A product which harms a rodent may not cause the same effect on a human, due to different skin textures, and eyes.

People approve of animal testing as they believe it is necessary for the progress of medicine, but tests are both disgusting and unreliable.

There is no law that requires cosmetics and household products such as bleach be tested on animals to see what affects they would apparently have on us, yet on the skin irritancy test, animals such as rats has a highly concentrated solution of a chemical, such as completely undiluted bleach, applied to their shaven skin.

It is then observed over a number of hours for signs such as redness and blistering caused by the product irritating the skin, and in some cases the skin is completely burnt through.

Another famous test is Draize, known as eye irritancy, performed mostly on albino rabbits. The rabbits are brutally immobilized and a liquid is placed into one eye of the rabbit, these substances can be mascara, after shave, oven cleaner and scented room spray.

The Florida White seems to be the most popular as it is docile, cheap, and the rabbit does not have tear ducts to wash away the product. The rabbits eyes are then clipped open and observed in the same manner as the rodents’ skin in a skin test for inflammation, ulceration, rupture of the eyeball, corrosion and bleeding.

So really, is it worth all of this pain to creatures who can feel hurting as much as us, for a new lash-lengthening mascara?