Animal Testing By Cosmetics Companies

We all use cosmetics to some extent. Most men, women, and even kids use some beauty products to look good. But did you know that the very same products that you use and love, were tested on innocent animals before they were presented to you in pretty packaging? It is a fact that most beauty products available on the market today, have been tested on animals. And the cosmetics companies will not deny it.

The Draize Test

Here is one of the most common tests conducted on animals when testing a beauty product for safety. In 1944, an FDA toxicologist named John H. Draize devised what later came to be known as the Draize test. The basic premise of the test is to evaluate the risks that one could be subject to, when exposed to new cosmetics products for a short period of time.

Here is how it is done. A small amount of the substance to be tested, in this case your moisturizer or shampoo, is applied either to the eyes or on the skin of an animal for hours in a row. If it is in the eyes, the animal is strapped into a contraption that keeps it from touching its face, the eye lids are clamped open, and drops of the product are put into the eyes. For the equally horrific skin version of the test, the animal's fur is shaved, then several layers of skin are removed, and only then is the substance applied to the raw skin and then covered with a plastic sheet.

The animal is then under observation for a couple of weeks to see if the product causes any irritation.

Have you ever gotten shampoo into your eyes by mistake? Know how it burns? Now imagine not being able to immediately splash some water and wash it away for a week or two. That is what the animal has to go through. And that is what you are indirectly condoning every time you buy a product that is tested on an animal. Ignorance is no excuse.

The tests are obviously painful. The animals are put to death after the tests. The cosmetics companies treat animals like things, not living beings. They are only kept alive for as long as they are useful, after which they are discarded like so much unwanted garbage. This is completely wrong and we all must appose it.

Thus, to show your disapproval to the above test and similar tests, do not buy products that are animal tested. Some day, this will stop if all of us work together.

So the next time you go online, instead of searching for something as regular as free makeup advice, try to make a difference in the world by reading up on animal testing. Learn about cosmetic companies that test on animals and boycott their products.

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