Why test on animals?

Many items purchased and used by us everyday, cleansers, cosmetics, drugs, are nearly always subjected to government regulations requiring that they be “safe” for us humans to use in everyday life. Businesses  are responsible for using toxicity animal tests on these types of products, including their active ingredients, before they enter the shops. The test results are then submitted to regulatory agencies that determine whether the data are sufficient for labeling and marketing the product. The toxicity testing for many types of products still involves testing on animals. 



Why the Bunnies? 



Products have to be safe for us humans to use either to put inside use aka tablets etc. Or put on our skin or clean our house with. They are tested so it can be safe and meet requirements to find out if it will harm us or be fatal to anyone who uses it. Even cosmetics with is not regulated commonly test on animals for safety. Many of these tests are toxicity tests done on either mice,rats or bunnies. Some of these tests required by FDA or EPA also use dogs,primates and other animals.  A toxicity test is required to find out the potential risks of each chemical. Tests will differ depending on the product type.

The most common test is the Draize rabbit eye test, intended to predict whether that product will cause injury to the human eye. The test involes placing an amount of product into the eyes of the rabbit up to 6 rabbits at a time and keeping a record over a course of 21 days. The nature of this is nothing but cruel with the animal in a lot of pain. This test has been proved to have poor results and not always the same result that a human would have.


Progress for non-animal testing is on going, but is very slow, disorganized and subject to backlash.

The Draize test for skin irritancy, which was first introduced in 1944, has been used to measure the response produced when a test is applied to the shaved skin of a group of animals, and can cause intense pain, burning and itching. (Skin is abraded by firmly pressing adhesive tape onto the animal’s body and quickly stripping it off.  The process is repeated until several layers of skin have been removed.)



Another traditional animal  test is called the  LD50 test, which stands for the lethal dose of a given test substance in 50% of the test’s animal population. The test, is done on mainly on mice and rats, is commonly used to for the human health of acute oral systemic toxicity where animal subjects are force-fed oral doses of the chemical being tested. This oral systemic test is used as a general indicator of the overall relative toxicity of a substance. Many scientists claim that the oral LD50 test has little relevance to evaluating the human safety of a substance, and some places  and international organizations have withdrawn their requirement for this type of test data. Progress toward replacing the LD50 test with alternative non-animal methods has been ongoing, but the test involves toxicity to the whole organism, and is therefore biologically complex.


Subchronic toxicity tests are used to determine toxicity from repeated exposure to a chemical over a period of several weeks to several months.  These tests usually last less than 10% of the test subjects’ natural life span.  Subchronic toxicity tests are used to measure the toxicity in chemicals, food additives, and even common spices such as paprika.  Hydroquinone, a chemical commonly used in skin lightening, age spot, and blemish creams, was also tested using these tests.

Chronic toxicity tests assess risks of long-term exposure - often at low levels for a substantial portion of the test subjects’ life - such as the potential to cause cancer, birth defects, and developmental abnormalities. They may also explore the body's absorption, distribution, metabolism, storage, and excretion of new chemicals and products, and/or monitor the long-term effect of a chemical on the brain, DNA, and nervous system. Lifetime animal-feeding studies, such as those conducted over the two-year lifetime of a rat or the 18-month lifetime of a mouse, are examples of chronic-toxicity tests.

Ref : www.mspca.org

Alternatives Development

In response to worldwide interest in reducing animal use in product safety testing, a growing number of alternative tests have been developed that replace, reduce, or refine animal tests .
In vitro tests (involving cell and tissue cultures grown "in glass" in the laboratory) are among the alternatives showing the most promise in product testing. They are faster, cheaper, and often more reliable than animal tests. Some completely replace animals while others reduce their numbers.  Additionally, tests that are in silico (computer-based) have also reduced the numbers of animals used.  While these methods often eliminate the need for animals in the early stages of research, animals are often needed in later stages of product development.  Still other alternatives, called refinements, make tests less painful or stressful for the animals involved.