I recently came across a video of laboratory animals seeing nature for the first time. An amazing video, but terribly heartbreaking. The footage initiated my thinking about animal testing and animal cruelty.

After watching the video, I thought back to the show "Animal Cops," aired on Animal Planet, that I watched religiously as a child. The series followed police cases for animals that had been abused. The episodes always resulted in the offenders being charged, and the animals being saved, and finally joining a loving home. The series demonstrated that animal cruelty is completely unacceptable. So, why aren't corporations, like the ones that locked up the animals in this video, receiving the same treatment?

Twenty-six million animals are used every year by corporations for testing. You initially may think that they're only using rats and goldfish, or other small menial creatures. Further, you may assume that they're using animals that aren't smart enough to realize what's happening to them, animals that don't have a large impact on the world, and animals that we don't have a large emotional attachment to. In reality, corporations in Minnesota used 2,703 cats in 2010, New Jersey used 6,077 dogs, and Massachusetts used 7,458 primates, like chimpanzees.

Although policies such as the Animal Welfare Act exist to protect laboratory animals, it is not strictly enforced, and often does not succeed in saving animals from cruel treatment. Hundreds of violations have been found in single facilities, making it know for animals to be left in inhumane living spaces, unattended. Even worse, these creatures are painfully tested on while conscious or under extreme psychological stress. Image if you were left, alive, in a plastic bag. Think about having your arm cut open while you were perfectly awake, with no pain medication. Picture yourself being pulled off of your mother's lap at 3 years old to be injected with harmful chemicals.

I think we can all agree that animal testing is morally wrong. Some may argue that testing on these animals is worth the medical advancements that have resulted. The fact is, this just isn't true. Thousands of animals are being tested on for products that are not life-or-death for humans. For example, shampoos, skin creams, and hair treatments are only a few products that animals become covered in for human safety testing. Only a small portion of animals are being harmed to create life-saving drugs and medicines.

In addition, testing on animals is actually not the most efficient way to test drugs. We have different molecular structures, metabolic rates, and reactions. Aspirin, for example, is harmful to some animals but we all know it as the "miracle drug" for humans.

This trend of low-efficiency is reflected throughout the entire industry of animal testing, as 94% of drugs that success on animals failed in human trials.

Some may continue to argue that although animal testing is inhumane and has a low success rate, it is cheaper than other options. Again, this is false. It has been found that "an animal test for an unscheduled DNA synthesis costs $32,000 while the in vitro alternative costs $11,000. A rat phototoxicity test costs $11,500, whereas the non-animal equivalent costs $1,300. A rat uterotrophic assay costs $29,600, while the corresponding in vitro test costs $7,200. A two-species lifetime cancer study can cost from $2 million to $4 million, and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends $14 billion of its $31 billion annual budget on animal research."

The evidence shows that animal testing is cruel, expensive, and unsuccessful. There is no need to keep harming lives when we don't have to. With new innovations such as artificial human skin, microfluidic chips (that are lined with human cells and act as organs), Petri dish testing, micro dosing, and computer models that replicate human molecular structures, animal testing needs to end.

If Elle Woods can make animal testing illegal in Legally Blonde 2, why haven't real life lawyers, activists, and scientists followed in her footsteps?

It's time for change. Corporations should be charged with the same animal cruelty laws that everyday citizens who harm animals are charged with. Whether it's in someone's backyard, or in a laboratory-- harming an animal is harming an animal.

If you want to help this cause, but you are not sure how to help, start using these, non-animal tested, products:

Alba Botanicals

Aveda

Bath & Body Works

Burts Bees

Kiss My Face

Nature's Gate

Paul Mitchell

The Body Shop

Tom's of Maine

Yes to Carrots

If you're curious if the products you are using have been testing on animals, look on the back of the bottle for a statement like, "Not Tested On Animals."