Stop The Suffering by Emily Frank

            Imagine yourself sleeping soundly on a calm, seemingly ordinary night. You wake with a start as you feel hands clamp down on your arms and throat. You are yanked from your comfortable bed and thrown forcefully into a vehicle. Next thing you know, you are pinned down to a hard surface as needles are being thrust into your skin and you feel something like acid burn your flesh. Chemicals fill your lungs and prohibit your breathing as the painful procedure drags on and on. There is no escape.

            “How could that possibly happen to anyone!?” you may be thinking, horrified. Well, it does... daily. Animals are the victims of this terrible experience. Each year, over 100 million animals are tested on for scientific research. Rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, monkeys, cats, dogs, and more are forced into a short lifetime of nothing but suffering just so food, drug, cosmetic, and other companies can make good money...

            And you support them.

            Now, one might argue, “but brands need to test their products, so that they are safe for us to use.” It is true that the testing of products on animals does ensure that they are safe for us to use, but it’s not necessary. Several animals suffered and even died just so you can put on a nice perfume.

When they’re finished, the testers kill the used animals in order to “put them out of their suffering.” Why not simply never make them suffer at all?

There are alternatives. We can ensure product safety in other ways. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a method of scanning the human brain to experiment with affects of chemicals. Comparative epidemiological studies can be done to find disease risk factors among the human population. For neurological research, nerve cells can be taken from cats and tested on separately (this does not cause the cats pain or damage). Testers can even use cloned human skin cells or computer models instead of helpless creatures.

All of these alternatives produce the same results as animal testing. Many companies function perfectly well without it, and sell completely safe products. Our world today is extremely advanced in the fields of technology, and companies are able to create their products without the involvement of cruelty to innocent animals.

Next time you pick up your shampoo bottle, think to yourself, “A bunch of helpless bunnies suffered and died just so my hair could have maximum body and bounce.”