Picture this: Simba, the cat, has been under experimentation for most of his life. This is probably the last time that he will ever have to be experimented on again. Why? He is probably not going to make it through this time. The makers of Pantene are about to force shampoo down his throat to see what happens to his organs. Even if Simba lives through this process, they are going to have to kill him to see which organs might have been damaged.

Most of us are not as informed about animal testing as we should be, and the lack of knowledge could be impacting people's view of the need for animal testing and their perception of the regulatory system around it. Each year, over 100 million animals are used for animal testing worldwide. Animals are being used for testing that ranges from drugs to our simple everyday shampoo. Almost every medicine, household product or treatment you have ever used has been tested on innocent animals for your benefit. We need to work together to stop animal testing.

Animal testing is a procedure performed on living animals for purpose of research into basic biology and diseases, evaluating the effectiveness of new medicinal products, and testing the human health and/or environmental safety of consumer and industry products such as cosmetics, household cleaners, food additives, pharmaceuticals and industrial/agro-chemicals. Most animals are killed at the end of an experiment, but some may be re-used in subsequent experiments. Here are just a few of the many animal procedures: forced chemical exposure in toxicity testing, exposure to drugs, chemicals or infectious disease at levels that cause illness, pain and distress, or even death, and also behavioral experiments that are designed to cause distress e.g., electric shock or forced swimming. Many different species of animals are used, but the most common include dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, pigs, sheep, monkeys, chimpanzees and more.

There are many companies whose products we use on a daily basis, that still use animal testing. Here are just some of the popular brands we all know and love that unfortunately use animal testing: Johnson & Johnson, Aveeno, Crest, Downy, Febreeze, Maybelline, Pantene, Suave, Tide, and Windex. It’s so sad to think that these poor innocent animals have to go through this suffering just for our benefit.

In Time Magazine’s article How Much Does Animal Testing Tell Us? By Laura Blue, an important point is mentioned, “We often hear you can't give aspirin to cats because it's toxic to them, or you shouldn't give chocolate to dogs. Chocolate, which is very safe in humans, is not safe in dogs.” Animals are not the best method to test chemical products on, because their biological makeup differs from ours. It is argued that humans benefit from animal testing, because in return we do not have to be tested on. But truthfully, most of the results coming from animal testing do not even correlate with humans’ reactions.

According to the article Ethical and Scientific Considerations Regarding Animal Testing and Research by Hope Ferdowsian and Nancy Beck, “Recent systematic reviews of treatments for various clinical conditions demonstrated that animal studies have been poorly predictive of human outcomes…” Therefore, why use animals for testing, when the results aren’t even worth anything?

If we know the correct steps to take, we can all help put a permanent end to animal testing. One of the things we can do to stop animal testing is to buy cruelty-free products. Cruelty-free companies do not support animal suffering. We can also join organizations against the cruelty of animals, in an effort to exploit the companies that do test on animals. Lastly, we can write to our representatives in congress, asking them to reconsider the ethics of animal testing, and help to put an end to it once and for all. Along with our efforts to put an end to animal testing, it is also important to know the alternatives to it.

Now that we know how cruel and unnecessary animal testing is, we can take steps to putting it to an end. We now know what animal testing is, how it affects the animals, and us and what we can do to stop it. If you can't imagine seeing your innocent pet getting tortured day in and day out why should any other similar animal have to do the same?