End all Animal Testing in the United States: We Must Speak for Those Who Can’t Speak for Themselves!

Today, hundreds of animals are being killed every minute due to medical and product testing experiments. Millions of mice, rats, rabbits, cats, dogs, primates and other animals are locked inside small cages in laboratories all across the Country (USA). They are all held captive against their will and all they can do is sit there, waiting in fear until the next terrifying and painful procedure is to be performed on them. Animals that are brought, raised, or even born into this cruel and unnecessary environment endure a life of pain, loneliness, and terror, with almost all of them being killed for scientific research once experimentation begins. Animals are used in labs to test numerous human diseases, products, and breeding practices. The truth is that animal testing is not only inhumane but scientifically proven to be bad science; it is unreliable, unnecessary, and inaccurate; better say, the results do not translate to humans.

In the United States, four states have already passed laws that ban testing cosmetics on animals. California being the first state followed by New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. Our goal is to ban not only the testing of cosmetics on animals but also to ban the testing of drugs and household products on animals from all states across the country. The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must eliminate the requirements of animal testing that companies must follow before distributing their products on the market. A popular well known cosmetic company named MAC must satisfy the FDA requirements before being approved to distribute their products on the market. Their products must be tested on animals before it can reach human contact and this is where the FDA must change their requirements for approval. The alternative requirement for testing on animals can be the replication of human skin.

This alternative method is not only more humane but leads to safer and more effective products and drugs for humans than those found through animal testing. The replication of human skin is the most popular method actively being performed today. Boston-based MatTek located in Boston, Massachusetts is an example of a company who is committed for modeling human biology. The company uses medical waste from circumcsisions, tummy tucks, and biopsies collected at hospitals from patients who consented to donate their body tissue to research. This is how science should progress in the United States, there is no need for animal cruelty. The FDA needs to understand that this should be the modern way for experimentation. This new advanced technology used for the replication of human skin is not only more humane but the outcome gives us more accurate results than of animal testing. This is why the FDA must ban their requirements for companies to test their products on animals. There are alternatives and the human skin replication being one of them can possibly bring greater discoveries for the human race.

The FDA must recognize that apart from animal testing being inaccurate it is also inhumane. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is a federal law that addresses the standard care for animals in research facilities yet it excludes 95% of animals tested upon such as mice, rats, rabbits, birds and reptiles. These animals are provided with only minimal protection but even so the FDA allows these animals to be tested upon. All animals must be removed and released from pharmaceutical companies, biomedical research facilities and other industries who practice this cruelty on animals. We must stand together and convince the FDA to change their requirements of animal testing for cosmetic companies like MAC and others around the United States.

To make a change now, each of us can help prevent animal suffering and deaths by buying cruelty-free, donating only to charities that don't experiment on animals, requesting alternatives for animal dissection in schools when demanded to go through this unnecessary procedure, donating our bodies to science, but most of all by signing this petition. We can ban animal testing in all states across the country; this is just the first step. These animals do not deserve to live a life full of agony. Your voice is crucial in giving all animals used for experiments in research facilities a chance to live a healthy and happy life. Be apart of the thousands of caring consumers who refuse to purchase products from corporations that follow the FDA requirements of testing on poor innocent animals. It is time that the U.S Food and Drug Administration ban their method on animal testing and change their requirement for something more humane and accurate.