Have you ever taken a look at the back of your shampoo bottle? What about your cleaning products or cosmetics? If you have, you may have noticed a label reading "Not Tested on Animals," or something similar. Unfortunately, this label is found on less items than not. Many people do not realize that alot of the products they use are first cruelly, and often lethally, tested on animals. Every year, on estimate, as many as 115 million animals are experimented on and killed. Not only is animal testing cruel, it is also inaccurate. For example, experiments on mice and rats failed to show any connection between cancer and smoking. Animal testing did not link heart disease to cholesterol, or strokes to high blood pressure. Out of 20 compounds known not to cause cancer in humans, 19 of them caused cancer in animals, and there are plenty more statistics where these came from. If your dog got sick and was dying, do you think it would be scientifically possible to find a cure for him by conducting research on your healthy uncle? One of the main reasons animal testing is unsuccessful is because every species is biochemically and biomechanically different, so why do so many people seem to think product testing results from animals will have any relation to humans?
I have always been a strong advocate against animal cruelty and, more recently, animal testing after learning some of the facts I have presented here. Supporting the fight against animal testing can be a difficult endeavor, and I've had to come to the realization that I'm simply not able to avoid all products tested on animals, but I try to do as much as I can. http://www.choosecrueltyfree.org.au/list.html provides a list of cruelty-free companies to make the fight a little easier to participate in. I urge you to please consider switching just one item you use to a cruelty-free item from one of the companies on the list. If you do, you could innocent animals from the cruelty of animal testing.
Thank you.
