The malicious use of animals in operations is not only cruel but also often inefficient. Animals do not get many human diseases, such as vital heart disease types, many types of cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, or schizophrenia. Instead, signs of these conditions are artificially induced in animals in laboratories to mimic the human disease. Such experiments belittle the complexity of social requirements affected by wide-ranging variables such as genetics, socioeconomic factors, deeply-rooted psychological issues, and different personal experiences. It is not surprising to find that treatments showing ‘promise’ in animals rarely work in humans.
Not only are time, money, and animals’ lives being wasted (with a tremendous amount of suffering), but effective treatments are being mistakenly discarded, and harmful treatments are getting through. The support for animal testing is mainly based on anecdote and is not backed up, we believe, by the scientific evidence that is out there.
Despite many decades of studying conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, stroke, and AIDS in animals, we do not yet have reliable and fully effective cures.
Testing a product on animals, scientists claim, gives a general idea regarding its health effects before use, but the problem is that humans and animals are not alike, and their reactions can never be truly indicative of ours. Still, old habits die hard, and several companies continue to invoke it as they did in the past. Rats, mice, guinea pigs, and rabbits are the most common species used for testing cosmetics, though efforts sometimes extend to cats and dogs. Testing can also require a specific number of animals before a stamp of approval is given. Skin sensitization tests require as many as 32 guinea pigs or 16 mice. To better understand whether a product will cause allergic reactions, a substance is applied or injected into animals’ skin. Should this lead to inflammation or scaling, the product is considered unfit for public use?
Animal testing is not mandatory, but companies enforce it as a means of declaring their products safe.