Looks Can Kill

Rabbits are mild-tempered, easy to handle, and easy to incarcerate. These are the things that make them so easy to be abused in laboratories for many reasons such as testing cosmetics, or skincare products used by thousands of people.

100 million animals including: mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds are killed in U.S. laboratories for many reasons, one being cosmetic testing. 170,000 rabbits alone die per year due to their notorious experiments.

The most toe curling experiment, is the Draize eye irritant test. In which scientists poor dish washing soap, drain cleaners, or cosmetics into their eyes. The chemicals in these products cause swelling, irritation, discharge, and/or blindness. Once the experiment is over, the rabbits are killed and thrown out.

“For years I’ve supported NARS beauty products because they were one of the few artistry brands that didn’t test on animals,” makeup artist Kat Von D said. “I am so confused/heartbroken that after all these years they would choose a paycheck over compassion.”  

Another experiment is the skin corrosive or irritation test, where a patch of hair is removed from the rabbit, and the scientist will proceed to apply chemicals on the shaved patch of skin. They wait three weeks to see what damage the chemical has done, and just like the draize test, they are killed and thrown out.

“Humans can be and are extremely heartless it makes me sad,” sophomore Karla Ramirez said.

Vitro testing is a new way to test products without having to torture an innocent animal. In these tests, samples of the product are taken into a laboratory to be tested for any diseases, or possible damages the product may do to a customer.

“[Companies] don’t take much fault in the fact of abusing animals, the industry does for making it seem okay to do this to animals,” sophomore Ramirez said.

Using products that have already been proven to be safe could also be another alternative to animal testing. There are many ways to insure the safety of humans, and harming an innocent animal should not be a way to insure our safety. If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we create a safe way to test cosmetics or other products without harming an animal?

There are many things we can do to help bring an awareness to this cruelty. Along with many other animal rights activist groups, Peta offers access to petitions to end animal cruelty.