Testing on People

A few months ago a British woman was used as the subject for cosmetic testing, in the same manner that animals are used, in order to bring attention to the suffering animals undergo so that we can have safe cosmetics.  This was a great campaign to show animal suffering, however it didn't give people any real information about animal testing, such as its effectiveness or how it is used in different fields.


The main argument for animal testing is that we need to ensure the products we use won't harm or kill us.  But here's the thing - testing on animals isn't really a great way to guarantee that the products will be safe.  Penicillin killed the guinea pigs it was tested on.  Where would we be today if we had stopped the tests there?

There are a lot more effective tests out there for testing cosmetics, medicines, and whatever else we want to test.  Although, not everything that is being tested on animals needs to be tested at all.

There have been extensive tests into the effects of such drugs as cigarettes.  Monkeys have been forced to chain smoke cigarettes so that scientists can see the affect cigarettes have on their bodies.  This does not make any sense for several reasons.  A monkey's body could be affected differently than a humans so it's really irrelevant, especially when there are so many humans willfully smoking who could be used as test subjects.  Further, there are so many humans smoking we already know that cigarettes are bad.  We know how they affect the human body.  We know they cause fatal illnesses.  So why are they still being tested?


Peter Singer has a lot to say about this subject, and I highly recommend anyone who is interested in more information (or looking for good arguments to throw at those who aggressively harass you for your choice to be vegan or vegetarian) read his book Animal Liberation.