Boycott Animal Testing-- Part one: Cosmetics

Animal testing is the cruel and unnecessary process of force-feeding and slathering products on animals and seeing how they react. One kind of animal testing for cosmetics is the Draize test, which involves putting chemicals in rabbits' eyes (rabbits have a slow reaction that causes them not to blink fast enough to avoid the chemicals). Another kind tries to determine how long it takes for half of the rats or mice to die once poisoned with a chemical, such as hairspray, nail polish, shampoo, etc. These tests are conducted to ensure the "safety" of the products being used-- but they are totally unhelpful.
Humans and other animals are different on a cellular and molecular level-- which often results in the tested animals reacting differently than humans do (I'll talk more about that in Part two: Biomedical Research). And besides, the chemicals used in cosmetics should be safe enough to test on humans right away. Not force-feeding humans like they do to animals, but applying a small amount on the skin of volunteers to see if they form a rash. So basically, testing on animals is completely worthless, not to mention cruel!
Which products do and don't test on animals, then? Well, it is your lucky day-- there is a huge printable list of cruelty-free companies that I am about to give you a link to!

Ta-Da!*** Regular List: http://www.leapingbunny.org/images/cciclist.pdf
                  Global Guide: http://www.leapingbunny.org/images/globalguide.pdf ***

Of course, there are so many unnecessary cosmetics out there, too-- you would be best to stick with the basic shampoo, conditioner, soap, and deodorant-- but if you do choose to use more than that, make sure that they ALL are animal-testing-free! Even better, make sure that they are animal-product free, toxic chemical free, and environmentally friendly, too.

Have fun shopping!

P.S. I almost forgot to post this because it's Christmas! Well, this is the last post of 2011. See you on  January 1, 2012!