Ever since the beginning of creation, man has been given dominion over the animals. We have used them for agriculture, companionship, entertainment, and even to carry out justice in the form of war horses, colosseum lions, and police dogs. As of late, animals have begun to take on many news roles, as the scientific community discovers how other mammalian bodies compare to our own. Many animals are used in lifesaving efforts, such as the making of vaccines and the growth of replacement heart valves. With the further discovery of the mammalian body’s similar reactions to chemical substances, animals have also begun to be used for a large variety of testing in the cosmetics industry. The cruelty of this testing is difficult to compare to anything else, due to its unique nature. What kinds of rights do animals have in these circumstances? Though humans are called to have dominion over the creatures in the world, does that mean we can use them for whatever we please, with no repercussions?
Most people are familiar with the use of animals in science experiments. The imagery the average person is likely to conjure up about the subject is a collection of rats or mice in a lab, injected with strange substances that make them distort into cartoonish mutations. Though rodents are not discluded from the umbrella of animals used in testing, there are many more animals in these situations than people would expect. Frogs, dogs, chickens, monkeys, and pigs have all been used in notable progressions in the scientific community, such as the discovery of organ transplant techniques, how the brain processes information, and how chemicals affect the body’s internal processes. These are experiments of note that could not have been humanely performed on human specimen. Even though these animals were used to make significant scientific progression, there are many animals that are used for much more disposable purposes.
The cosmetics industry uses several different species of animals to test the safety of their products, often using cruel and unusual ways of testing how the mammalian body will react to the chemicals and other materials in such products. Tests are performed beyond what should be considered reasonable, and the subject animals are often euthanized and discarded after their completion in such studies.
Many of the materials used in the tested cosmetic products should be considered unsafe for human use, let alone testing on animals. A common offender to this would be a collection of substances referred to as formaldehyde-releasing preservatives. These come in the forms of DMDM hydantoin, diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, and methanamine, just to name a few. Formaldehyde is a substance generally thought of in respect to anatomical dissections and the preservation of the organism being observed. However, this material, with a chemical composition of CH2O, is also industrially used in building construction materials like plywood, and in creating insulation foams, used to fill wall cavities in houses. Homes that use this type of insulation use forms of purifiers to change the released formaldehyde into less harmful substances. Why would we want a substance that must be filtered from homes put into our cosmetics, let alone tested on animals we know it will have a negative effect on?
That being said, people who think animal testing should be entirely legal have a valid point. Certain animals that are illegal to experiment on are the ones that are the most similar to humans, and would, therefore, be the best to use. It is also a good way to determine the safety of products towards humans before given to humans, and it can benefit medical advancements for both humans and future animals. Even though these are all true, testing of cosmetics can be done on things other than animals, such as samples of human cell growths in petri dishes, which has been proven to be extremely effective, and gives a closer view into what the effect will be on a prospective consumer. When using an animal, though the results may be extremely similar to humans, it is still not a human. Using a sample of human tissue shows exactly what the effect will be instead of a fairly certain approximation.
From a Biblical standpoint, at minimum, cosmetic animal testing is seen as incorrect. Proverbs 12:10 says, “A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.” Though animals are to be used as food, and were previously used as sacrifice, they should not be used in ways that may be better classified as abuse. Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” Though man is put as a steward over the earth, we must remember that everything on the earth belongs, ultimately, to God. We have to treat the things we’ve been given charge of with respect, and act over them in the way God acts over us, with love, provision, and mercy.
