Beauty or the Beasts?

What do people place more value on? An animal’s life? Or the latest CoverGirl Outlast All-Day lipcolor? Apparently it’s the lipcolor. We are buying products like shampoo, makeup, and medicine that are guaranteed ‘tear-free’ and ‘have no side effects’. There is a reason that companies are able to claim that the Pepto-Bismol in your medicine cabinet won’t make you develop eye twitches. That reason is animal testing.

Animal testing has been in use for years, and it has been questioned for every year it is utilized. Our tax money is being poured into animal testing; each year millions of dollars are used, not for finding an alternative, but to make it cheaper so that even more companies can do it. Why should we even think of an alternative? It’s a fantastic idea; we can just stick some dogs in cages and try out chemicals on them. If they cry out in agony, we can just get another test subject! No harm done! After all, if testing isn’t injuring us, why should we stop? There are several reasons why we should stop. Every year, as many as 115 million animals are experimented on and killed in laboratories, and that’s just in the US. Imagine if that was 115 million extra humans getting killed every year. In just 50 years, we could wipe out the entire population. Yes, yes, I know, they’re just animals, and there are far more animals than humans. Besides, it’s not like we actually need dogs and cats and baboons. What have baboons ever done for us?

Animal testing occurs in places I never expected to find it. Arm & Hammer tests on animals for each new product, Oral-B’s new flavor probably wasn’t enjoyed by its test subjects, and Playtex… Well, I don’t even want to think about what Playtex tests on animals. Even Harvard University subjected more than 600 primates to harmful experiments, and it contains in its laboratories more than 2,000 more. Yes, that Harvard. It’s not like there aren’t alternatives. Oh, no, there definitely are alternatives, but they are far too expensive and the top priority of the CEOs isn’t the animals’ lives, it’s the multibillion dollars that animal testing rakes in. Even though the alternatives involve humans, isn’t it time we repaid the debt? To quote Pharmagene cofounder Gordon Baxter, “If you have information on human genes, what’s the point of going back to animals?” Some tests don’t even involve an actual living human being; all that’s needed is some human cells. It’s just as painless to you as injecting a shot into a puppy.

The life of an animal as a test subject, whether it is a dog, a cat, a mouse, or a primate, is miserable and lonely. Each animal gets a cage, and the only control they now have in their lives is in which dark, grimy corner they fall asleep in. It’s like being trapped in a closet, but without the perks of being R. Kelly, or having a key, for that matter. The animals in testing shrink back in their cages whenever a person walks by, and they often see other animals killed right in front of them. Yay, it’s just like being in a mental facility! How fun!

In Legally Blonde 2, the bill to stop animal testing was passed and put into effect by a woman who loved her makeup, but loved her dog more. However, something tells me that Paris Hilton won’t be willing to give up her CoverGirl in favor of TinkerBell and Tokyo Blu. Sorry, puppies. But that’s the way life is, isn’t it? Someone voting to continue animal testing is like saying that they want healthcare cuts. When all of the wars are over; the killing still doesn’t cease, it’s just in facilities, not in Iraq or Iran or whichever country George W. Bush has decided to invade today. We’ve got the power to change things, America, so which will it be? Beauty or the Beasts?

Bibliography: Legally Blonde 2, PETA, StopAnimalTests . com

-rif4ever