The Unknown Angel
Katherine, 17
Maryland
A tear that couldn't be formed,
sad words that couldn't be said,
a lonely life without love
was all that she has had.
She could not tell her story,
she could not tell her tale,
the man would not consider
all the things she could do well.
He did not care about her.
She did not make a sound.
She always felt so lonely
even though others were around.
But then one day her time came,
the man took her away.
He ended her life
without a simple little care.
He was a vivisector*,
she was a simple cat,
but he was the one
who deserved to die like that.
The day he took her life,
not one soul shed a tear,
For no one knew what she had gone through,
or her sad despair.
But he went on,
many others died,
No one knew,
so no one cried.
But now they know
and he still goes on
because they buy the products
that poor cat was tested on.
*Vivisector: a person who does experiments on animals
Animal Testing in Cosmetics
Emma Mayberry, 15
California
The cosmetics industry is thought of by many as clean and cheerful. However, behind the scenes of makeup production, scientists do many cruel things to animals in order to line the shelves with row after row of cosmetics. Testing involves applying cosmetic ingredients to the test animal's skin, usually rabbits, and then they observe how the skin reacts. A majority of the animals that are tested on have more tender skin than ours. Usually, the skin starts to be eaten away and exposes the flesh. Whether or not the product is successful, the animal is killed. Sometimes the pain alone from the testing kills the animal.
Did you know that any cosmetic you might be wearing right now has probably been the death sentence for about one hundred animals? Some people think that these animals have no importance, emotions, or reasons to live in the world. Others believe that it is dishonorable to have death on your hands, whether it is a human or animal's life. Do you think that the cost of cosmetics is too high? What if the cosmetics you wear were produced at the expense of one hundred human deaths?
Do we really need to produce new makeup and toiletries? A compelling course of action would be to stop all the testing on animals, just keep producing existing products, and let the test animals go free. I'm sure that many people would agree with this in order to make the world a safer and healthier place for more animals. But, until animal testing stops, we can at least refuse to buy these products that were inhumanely created. Many animal rights activists encourage consumers to boycott* the companies who test their products on animals. We can make a difference!
*Boycott: to refuse to deal with an organization in order to express disapproval of their practices.
Cuddly Cosmetics!
Emma Mayberry, 15
California
Animals are being cruelly used and abused to test out new beauty products such as perfumes, deodorants, face creams, and lipsticks. How are test animals treated? Small animals such as rabbits, rats, and mice are kept in clear white boxes about the size of a shoebox. Bigger animals are kept in larger boxes or wire cages, often with more than one in each living space.
Scientists perform many kinds of tests on the animals. For example, The Draize eye irritancy test determines whether a product damages the tissue of an animal's eye. In the experiment, ingredients are placed into the eyes of conscious rabbits without any anesthesia*. Since rabbits do not have any tear ducts to clean away eye irritants and are unable to blink because of clips holding their eyes open, many suffer from broken necks when struggling to escape.
Skin irritancy tests are also conducted on animals. The Draize 24-hour patch test for example, releases chemicals onto the animal's shaved skin to test the reaction to the product in question. The acute toxicity test determines how much of the product is needed to kill the animal. Animals are forced to ingest substances through stomach tubes, vapor sprays, or just through their skins. Often animals respond by vomiting, having diarrhea, and bleeding from the eyes, nose, and mouth. After the experiments are completed, the animals are often put to sleep or otherwise die of unnatural causes.
Where do test animals come from? Scientists buy animals from dealers who breed and raise them. In 37 states, dealers can take animals from shelters and sell them to labs for research. In all 50 states it is illegal for stolen animals to be sold or used in research, but many stolen animals wind up in laboratories.
*Anesthesia: A drug that causes partial or total loss of sensation so that surgery or other painful procedures can be performed without hurting the person or animal
*Ulceration: blisters within the body
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