Beagles are often used for toxicology animal testing.
So Many Animals Live Scary, Heart-Breaking, Painful Lives In Lab Testing.
Imagine your life, locked in a small cage all day with no chance of getting outside but only to have someone forcefully feeding, applying chemicals every day for days, weeks or years on you. Then you get a painful reactions or diseases from this chemical but you are continuously forced to ingest these toxic chemicals or have them applied to your skin every day. For some animals, this is the life they get since birth, they get taken away from their mom right away after they are born to be experimented upon. Then when they survive this horrible process, they get killed after the testing is over. There is no proper care while they are waiting in the cage before, during or after the test. They are treated like a piece of lab equipment from the moment they get to the lab till they die.
Every year 25 million animals are abused in lab testing in US. The animals used in lab testing includes dogs, cats, rabbits, mice, rats, frogs, fish bird, monkeys, guinea pigs, hamsters, chimpanzees and more. However, rats, mice and birds are not protected under Animal Welfare Act in US so they don’t even have to be counted for their death. Rats, mice and birds take up 95% of animals in research. Therefore, the number of how many animals are actually used and abused in the lab each year is enormous. (Rats, Mice & Birds)
Painful Testings Are Done to Innocent Animals.
Rabbits are tortured in the Draize eye irritancy tests for cosmetics, drain cleaner and dish washing liquid. Rabbits are locked down and chemicals are dripped into their eyes without any pain relief. This causes swelling, burning, redness, discharge, ulceration, hemorrhaging or blindness to the rabbits.
Beagles or dogs are used in toxicology studies. They are forcefully fed or injected large doses of drugs, chemicals, pesticides or house hold products. They are slowly poisoned or killed instantly. In toxicology test, animal is forced to swallow large amounts of a toxic chemical to determine the dose that causes death. US Food & Drug Administration requires pharmaceutical, pesticides or food additive chemicals to be tested on animals and dogs, especially beagles are tested on.
Primates (including monkeys or chimpanzees) are used for invasive brain experiments, maternal-deprivation experiments, vaccine tests, pharmaceutical tests and military experiments and training. In maternal-deprivation experiments, newborn chimpanzee is taken away from his/her mother to be tested on. The infant chimpanzee is placed in isolated cages with no social interaction and no sensory input. This cruel test is to give an infant neglect and abusive, fearful situations throughout all of infant’s life to see how the infant turns out in later life. (Baby Monkey Experiments Exposed) In some maternal-deprivation experiments, an infant is given a ‘surrogate mother’ such as man-made devices that ejected barbed spikes or had freezing temperature. The test is to see if the infant will still cling to this awful mother. These types of cruel researches are done so many times in the past, there is no need to prove what infants will do when they are deprived of their mothers. However, many researchers continuously do this unnecessary research just to be funded. (Maternal Deprivation)
Mice are often forcefully fed toxic chemical to see health hazard such as cancer or birth defects. This type of testing is sometimes done for months or years. They are often given enormous tumors and painful, deadly illnesses. They go through many scary experiments such as burn tests to invasive brain experiments. (Mice & Rats In Laboratories)
Pain Relief For Animals During Testing Is Not Mandatory Under The Law.
Animal Welfare Act is the only federal law in US that provides minimal protection for animals used for testing. This law is not strict at all and has lots of loop holes for animal testers. It does not limit what kind of experiment is done to the animals and it doesn’t care how much pain or distress it causes to animals. A researcher can use pain relief as an option, therefore, he/ she does not have to use pain relief for the sake of the experiment under the law.
Often these animals are locked down so that they are not able to move during testing. Sometimes, they are also shocked or put in tubes for immobilization. They go under anesthesia or have plastic tube put into their airway to have drugs or chemicals inserted. Sometimes, anesthetization is done by a person who is lack of training or experience so that the animal is paralyzed but still feel the pain.
Most of these animals are used to test toxicity of chemicals, diseases, genetic manipulation. They go through painful and invasive procedures. A lot of them are tested for chronic disease or toxicity of chemicals and they are constantly tested with toxic chemicals every day for years. Animals have electrodes implanted into their brain, are blinded, burned, shocked, poisoned and many other horrible things done to them. They suffer from diseases, abnormalities and deformity from the testing. Some animals undergo skull surgeries, spinal surgeries or burn experiments without pain relief.
Animal Testing Is Unnecessary And Unreliable.
Animal testing is actually unnecessary. We do not need animals to find cure for diseases or toxicity of chemicals. Actually animal testing is very unreliable because humans and animals are not the same. What happens to the animals don’t happen in humans in the same way. 4,451 cancer drugs were developed between 2003 and 2011 after successful lab testings, however, 93% of them failed after entering the first phase of human clinical trials. They didn’t work for humans!
Also, the data gathered from animal testing is inaccurate. Animals in lab testings show extreme psychological and physical distress due to the scary lab environment. Animals are tested not in their original state but in severely stressed condition. Cortisone levels, blood pressure, heart rate rise in animals watching other animals being tortured or experimented upon. Scary testing procedure performed on them can also have effects on animals’ stress levels. In one study, stressed rats developed chronic inflammatory conditions and intestinal leakage. These stressed condition and outcome are add variables that can change or confuse data. The test results are not generated from animal’s original state but with added physical and psychological distress. Therefore, this type of medical outcome is not accurate. (Flaws and Human Harms of Animal Experimentation)
In addition, human body and animal body function differently because we are both unique in our own ways. We have different physiology and genetics that animals don’t have. As PETA stated, Penicillin kills guinea pigs but is inactive in rabbits. Aspirin kills cats and causes birth defects in rats, mice, guinea pigs, dogs, and monkeys. And morphine, a depressant in humans, stimulates goats, cats, and horses. Animal testing is not only unreliable but also it is actually dangerous for our humans. Successful chemical testing to animals can have different effects on humans. Whoever uses the product first after the successful animal testing is the experimental subjects. (Animal Testing Is Bad Science: Point/ Counterpoint)
Companies Do Animal Testing To Sell To China and To Use Synthetic Chemicals
There are two reasons why companies do animal testing. One is to sell their products to China where animal testing is mandatory. Anything that is imported to China has to meet their animal testing requirement. If companies are selling to China, they are contributing to animal testing. They can’t call themselves cruelty-free even if they don’t do animal testing in US. Victoria’s Secret has a policy not to test on animals but they expanded their sales to China and began paying for cruel and deadly tests on animals to sell their products there. Therefore, they are not cruelty-free and they are actually contributing to animals’ pain and suffering.
Another reason for animal testing is because of the chemicals they use for their product. They are not natural or organic but they are synthetic chemicals. They are artificially designed so we don’t know if the chemicals will cause harm to humans. Many times synthetic chemicals are toxic and they have to be tested so that the companies don’t get sued if something happens. You will be surprised to see toxic chemicals in our every day products such as lotions, toothpastes, shampoos, wipes, make-ups and many more. Why would you want to put toxic chemicals on yourself any way? Most products with synthetic chemicals are toxic! These products are made by major corporations such as Proctor & Gamble (which owns Pampers, Dawn, Always, Herbal Essence, Crest, Vicks, Mr. Clean, Tide, Olay and many more), Maybelline, Estée Lauder or many more. If these companies use natural, organic ingredients, animal testing is not needed.
There Are Other Alternatives To Animal Testing.
Animal testing is expensive and inaccurate. It also takes long time to get results. (sometimes months or years) There are other alternatives to animal testing. These alternatives are actually cheaper, faster and more accurate. The alternatives include sophisticated tests using human cells and tissues (also known as in vitro methods), advanced computer-modeling techniques (often referred to as in silico models), and studies with human volunteers. (Alternatives To Animal Testing)
There are also thousands of ingredients that are already known to be safe and have been in use for a long time. Companies can make products using those ingredients. Also, there are already 50 different alternative methods and testing strategies available. For example, EpiSkin™, EpiDerm™ and SkinEthic are each composed of artificial human skin. These can save thousands of rabbits from painful skin corrosion and irritation tests. (Alternatives to Animal Tests)
Here Is What We Can Do. Do Not Buy Products That Do Animal Testing!
Animals just like us feel fear, loneliness, stress, pain and suffering. They including mice have empathy when they see others being hurt or in pain. We can stop this painful abuse to these innocent animals by not buying from companies that do cruel animal testing. Support cruelty-free companies. Many cruelty-free companies don’t do animal testing because their ingredients are natural, organic and safe. Stay away from products made with synthetic, toxic chemicals. Cruelty-free products are better for you. Support cruelty-free products and make your voice heard to cruel, barbaric companies that hurt and kill animals.
If you want to know how animals are tested in cosmetic and household products, please see my next post ‘Types Of Animal Testing In Cosmetics and Household Products‘.
If you want to find out which company test on animals, please see my next post ‘Companies That Test On Animals – Don’t Buy From These Companies.’
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