Every year, millions of animals suffer and die in painful tests to determine the safety of cosmetics. Substances such as eye shadow and soap are tested on rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, dogs, and other animals, despite the fact that the test results don t help prevent or treat human illness or injury. Cosmetics are not required to be tested on animals and since non-animal alternatives exist, it s hard to understand why some companies still continue to conduct these tests.
Cosmetic companies kill millions of animals every year to try to make a profit.
According to the companies that perform these tests, they are done to establish the safety of a product and the ingredients. Some of the tests used on animals are eye irritancy tests, acute toxicity tests, and skin irritancy tests. In eye irritancy tests, a liquid, flake, granule, or powdered substance is dropped into the eyes of a group of albino rabbits. The animals are often immobilized in stocks from which only their heads protrude. They usually receive no anesthesia during the tests.