• Question: how do you feel about animlas being used for cosmetic testing? (100,000-200,000 animals die due to cosmetic testing every year all year round)

    Asked by Rachiee to Max, Ben, Sian, Lizzie, Francis on 6 Mar 2018. This question was also asked by Alexiaalcolea05.
    • Photo: Max Jamilly

      Max Jamilly answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      Interesting question! Personally, I think that some specific and carefully controlled kinds of animal testing are justified for medicines if those medicines will make humans better. But this doesn’t necessarily apply for cosmetics. I think it would be much more ethical if we can move to animal-free cosmetics testing, perhaps using tissues grown in a petri dish. Ethical experts and the public should have the final say on questions like this (that includes you!).

    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 7 Mar 2018:

      Cosmetic testing on animals seems partularly cruel to me, as cosmetics may not be vital to our health and survival. Scientists who work with any animals have to consider this question a lot. We have a principle we have to stick to called the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, refinement) which stops us from using animals if it is uneccessary. For more information you can read up on it here: https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/the-3rs . I’m not sure how cosmetic testing would fit into the 3Rs.

    • Photo: Francis Man

      Francis Man answered on 9 Mar 2018:

      I agree with Max and Ben. Unlike medicines, I don’t think cosmetics are very important for humans, so I find it difficult to justify testing cosmetics on animals. In my opinion it would be better not to test cosmetics at all on humans.
      The ingredients that are used in most cosmetics are rarely new, we know how safe they are, so I don’t think there is a real need to continue this testing.

    • Photo: Lizzie Wright

      Lizzie Wright answered on 10 Mar 2018:

      I completely disagree with it. There is no need for animal testing of cosmetics. Cosmetics shouldn’t be dangerous and should be tested on humans.

      Animal research for drug development is completely different though and we shouldn’t confuse the two. I believe animal research for drug development is completely necessary and done in a way that has the most minimal impact possible to the animals. It is very highly regulated and we are continuously looking for alternatives, where possible. As Ben mentioned, look at the 3Rs website for more information.

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