Assignment: Animal Testing

3. What do you think of animal testing on cosmetics? Does it matter to you what kind of animals are used (whether it's mice, rabbits, dogs, primates, ect?). Remember that without animal testing, cosmetics may end up much more expensive and possibly have greater risk to humans.

Answer:Animal testing is the use of non-human animals in scientific experimentation. Cosmetics testing on animals is particularly controversial. Such tests, which are still conducted in the U.S., involve general toxicity, eye and skin irritancy, phototoxicity (toxicity triggered by ultraviolet light) and mutagenicity. Cosmetics testing is banned in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK, and in 2002, after 13 years of discussion, the European Union (EU) agreed to phase in a near-total ban on the sale of animal-tested cosmetics throughout the EU from 2009, and to ban all cosmetics-related animal testing. Although animal testing in cosmetics is cruely behavior, it's necessary action for people avoid hurt.

Scientists and governments state that animal testing should cause as little suffering to animals as possible, and that animal tests should only be performed where necessary. The "three Rs" are guiding principles for the use of animals in research in most countries:

*Reduction refers to methods that enable researchers to obtain comparable levels of information from fewer animals, or to obtain more information from the same number of animals.

*Replacement refers to the preferred use of non-animal methods over animal methods whenever it is possible to achieve the same scientific aim.

*Refinement refers to methods that alleviate or minimize potential pain, suffering or distress, and enhance animal welfare for the animals still used.
Although such principles have been welcomed as a step forwards by some animal welfare groups, they have also been criticized as both outdated by current research, and of little practical effect in improving animal welfare.