You may have heard of animal testing before. It’s the process of testing out products on animals to see if they’re safe for humans. This might sound like a good thing, although, it might not after you know the amount of animals that are tested on each day...just for cosmetics. One may be surprised to learn that, “an estimated 500,000 animals continue to be used annually in animal testing for cosmetics. This roughly equates to 1,390 animals possibly harmed every day.” This intriguing fact from Opposing Viewpoints tells us about the outrageous amount of animals that are tested each day, and are possibly being hurt by it. This proves that we’re relying on animal testing too much. We are hurting their lives to help ours, which is the definition of not fair. 

        Animal testing is not only harmful to animals, but it’s not a reliable way to see if our products are safe. The article, “Should Animal Testing Be Used for Scientific or Commercial Testing?” from ProCon.org cites a study done in the 1950’s, that allowed 10,000 babies to be born with serious deformities. When they tested the product they were going to use on animals, the results came back saying that it would be safe for humans. This illustrates that animal testing doesn’t work as well as people might think. 

        Also, animal testing is not necessary anymore. We now have other ways of testing our products to see how safe or unsafe they are. ProCon.org explains an interesting new way of testing, “Other research methods such as in vitro testing (tests done on human cells or tissue in a petri dish) offer opportunities to reduce or replace animal testing.” This is an example of how we can save animals, and test products.

In a survey, I asked, “How much do you know about animal testing?” to every student in an CMS eighth grade class. Zero students said that they know a lot about animal testing. Around 85 percent of the students said they only know a little bit about it, and around 13 percent of students said they know nothing about animal testing. You are not alone in not knowing a lot about animal testing. This survey proves that there is not nearly enough awareness about animal testing. Think about this, if you’d never seen advertisements for cars, clothes and everything else that you have, would you have even wanted to invest in them in the first place? 

I told an eighth grade student that my research has told me that animal testing is harming animals, but it has helped us make advances in vaccines and cures for diseases. They were then asked, “Do you think this is fair?” The student answered, “I don’t think it’s fair because we are hurting animals to protect us.” It is not a secret what happens to animals during animal testing. People know what it does to animals, and if we want to save them, we have to do something about it soon. 

Animal testing should not continue because of the pain it’s causing animals, the false results that it’s given us about the safety of our products, and because it’s not necessary. Some people think it's a necessary step for humans, although, I bet animals disagree. Think about it, do you think animals have a right to disagree? Or should we continue telling them they can’t live healthy lives because we have makeup that needs testing?