Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Alternatives to Animal Testing

*Brodie*

New drugs, products and chemicals are often tested on animals before making their way to the market for human consumption and use. No matter what side of the animal testing controversy you're on, finding a new way of testing that doesn't involve cruelty to a living being is a good thing.

What Products Get Tested On Animals
A lot of the products that we use everyday get tested on animals including medical procedures, medicines, shampoo, perfume, cleaning agents, cosmetics and medical devices. They are tested on animals before they ever make their way to us.

Human Skin Equivalent
Scientists have developed a skin equivalent called SkinEthic and EpiDerm that scientists can use instead of animal skin to measure the corrosiveness and irritation of a product. According to the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, "Some alternatives to the use of animals in testing include: in vitro (test tube) test methods and models based on human cell and tissue cultures, computerized patient-drug databases and virtual drug trials, computer models and simulations, stem cell and genetic testing methods, non-invasive imaging techniques such as MRIs and CT Scans microdosing (in which humans are given very low quantities of a drug to test the effects on the body on the cellular level, without affecting the whole body system)."

Using alternative methods are also more cost effective because there are no animals to house, feed, care for, look after or dispose of after they are tested on and the tests are over. Being cruelty free is something more and more companies are looking to be since more and more people are in the market for cruelty free products. Animal testing is not something that most people want to see still happening when there are alternatives to it. Some companies have gone the way of no longer testing on animals so we know it can be done elsewhere.

What are your thoughts on this?

12 comments:

  1. I never really understood why they used animals for skin products......it doesn't seem like our skin has much in common?

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  2. Stupid that some companies still use animals, especially with all the technology we have today.

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  3. Animal testing makes me sad. :(

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  4. I always been against animal testing as I love animals and it seems to cruel to test things on them first. It makes me sad. It's good to hear alternatives like these are being developed and I hope that eventually the need for animal testing completely disapears.

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  5. Bijoux- Never made much sense to me either. I'm sure there are people out there willing to test new products at home.

    Pat- It really is.

    Chrys- Me too.

    Lola- I am too. Makes no sense to me.

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  6. I am glad more companies are going animal free testing.

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  7. I wish they'd stop testing on animals and do it on something nobody would miss

    like those weirdos you see at walmart

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  8. I've never understood why they test on animals when humans are the final users of the products. I don't agree with testing and shop accordingly. Surprisingly, animal testing for cosmetics has been under discussion here in NZ recently. While no NZ companies do animal testing, they're passing a law to prohibit this.

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  9. Sandy- Me too.

    Adam- Yeah, those people would be perfect.

    Shelley- It's good that more and more people are talking about it and it's getting banned and outlawed in more places.

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  10. Animal testing should be completely banned.

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