The History of Animal Testing

Each and every day, people reach for their makeup and skincare products to make them feel beautiful and confident about themselves. What many people don’t realize, however, is that these products have often been tested on harmless animals. 

Where it All Began

Animal testing is a prevalent issue since it first occured as early as 500 BCE (ProCon.org, 2020). According to the Susan Scutti, from the Medical Daily, testing surgical procedures on animals was used by Ibn Zuhr, an Arab physician in the 12th century before applying the surgical procedures to humans (Scutti, 2013). What once started as a medical practice, soon turned into testing for cosmetic and household products.

Animal Testing in the United States

 In 1937, the United States of America experienced issues with mass poisoning after,

“a pharmaceutical company created a preparation of sulfanilamide, a drug used to treat streptococcal infections, by using diethylene glycol (DEG) as a solvent… which is poisonous to humans and caused the deaths of more than a hundred people,” (Scutti, 2013). Due to this travesty, animal testing became more common to test the safeness of the products before selling them to the public. 

In 1938, the United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was signed which mandates and requires companies to implement safety precautions when creating cosmetics for the public (The Humane Society of the United States, n.d.). This Act is what started the use of animal testing for cosmetic testing after, “serious injuries suffered by people who were exposed to unsafe beauty products,” (National Anti-Vivisection Society, 2015). 

However, in 1966, the Animal Welfare Act was signed to regulate the how animals are treated, “the housing and transportation of animals used for research,” (ProCon.org, 2020). This Act, however, “excludes birds, rats and mice bred for research, cold-blooded animals, and farm animals used for food and other purposes,” (ProCon.org, 2020) and does not put any regulations on the experiments these animals endure. 

Timeline

The United States Humane Society released a timeline showing the changes countries and states have made to end cosmetic animal testing. Below, there is a attacheched timeline that notes some of the biggest changes countries and states of the United States have implemented. 

This timeline does not include all of the dates mentioned in the Humane Society website, but it lists some of the biggest laws selct countires and states have enforced about animal testing. This timeline also highlights that certain states within the United States, such as California, New York, and New Jersey have implemented changes about animal testing. 

California is no longer accepting cosmetic products that have been testing on animals to be sold in the state since January 2020 (The Humane Society of the United States, n.d.). New Jersey and New York have also implemented laws about companies needed to use alternative methods to test their products that have been accepted by the Interagency Coordination Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM). ICCVAM is a strategy used to implement other testing methods on products rather than testing on animals (The Humane Society of the United States, n.d.).

While this timeline suggests that certain states within the United States are implementing better laws to improve cruel testing on animals, the United States will imports their skin care and cosmetics to China which indicates that they are still testing their products on China because China has a law about imported products being testing on animals before they are allowed to be sold there. 

China’s Law on Animal Testing

According to PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, “Chinese government requires tests on animals for all imported cosmetics and any special use cosmetics, regardless of where they were manufactured,” (Toliver, 2019). This law was implemented because it would add regulations to the imported products to match those that are being produced in China (Toliver, 2019). Although China does implement these laws, they have opened up and allowed two more alternative methods other than animal testing (Toliver, 2019). 

According to the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (https://iivs.org/2019/04/03/china-accepts-new-alternative-methods-for-cosmetics/), the two tests that China’s government have accepted include, “Direct Peptide Reaction Assay (DPRA) for Skin Sensitization and Short Time Exposure Assay (STE) for eye,” (Institute for In Vitro Sciences, 2019).

Today on Animal Testing

Although Animal testing is not necessary in today’s culture due to our abundance of information and resources on products, many companies still choose to implement testing on animals into the creation of cosmetic products as to create a security for themselves to indiciate that they have taken preventavie measures for their customers. 

The reddit user, vibrant_promise, uploaded the photograph below, which indicates where animal testing is banned. Many places still implement animal testing when producing cosmetic products. 

This photo is not mine, it was taken from https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/azmkw0/where_animal_testing_on_cosmetics_is_banned/

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References

The Humane Society of the United States. (n.d.). Timeline: Cosmetics testing on animals. Retrieved from https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/timeline-cosmetics-testing-animals#1938

Institute for In Vitro Sciences. (2019, April 3). China's NMPA approves new in vitro methods for regulating cosmetics. Retrieved from https://iivs.org/2019/04/03/china-accepts-new-alternative-methods-for-cosmetics/

National Anti-Vivisection Society. (2015, December 10). Cosmetics testing on animals. Retrieved from https://www.navs.org/the-issues/animals-used-in-cosmetics-testing/#.XoZM8S3MwnU

ProCon.org. (2020, March 18). History of animal testing. Retrieved from https://animal-testing.procon.org/history-of-animal-testing/

Reddit. (2019, March 10). Where animal testing on cosmetics is banned. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/azmkw0/where_animal_testing_on_cosmetics_is_banned/

Scutti, S. (2013, June 27). Animal testing: A long, unpretty history. Retrieved from https://www.medicaldaily.com/animal-testing-long-unpretty-history-247217

Toliver, Z. (2019, June 24). Is China on its way to ending animal testing for cosmetics?. Retrieved from https://www.peta.org/blog/cosmetics-regs-china-animal-tests/