More and more people today are against animal testing. However, many industries, such as the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, continue to test their products on animals. With the great advances in technology over the last decade, there are many other cruelty-free options available to industries.
Many states in America have restricted animal tests, including the LD 50 Test (lethal dose 50). This test force feeds enormously large amounts of materials to animals until 50 percent of the tested animals die. This test in particular yields dubious scientific results, yet it's still performed today.
Today, there are alternative tests that do not use animals as test subjects. Many of these tests are more accurate and take less time, for example the Ames (bacterial culture), Eytext (in-vitro, test-tube), CytoFlour Spectrofluorometer (using fluorescent indicator dyes), and tissue and culture tests.
When shopping for cruelty-free products, keep in mind that even though a company may state that they are "cruelty-free", "do not test on animals" or "animal friendly", these companies are not always accurate. In fact, these companies may use ingredients that have been purchased from other companies who "have" tested the materials on animals. Unfortunately' this happens because there are no laws prohibiting companies who make these claims from contracting out to laboratories who use animals to test products.
The good news is that there are many non-profit organizations who provide free product guides that list companies whose products are truly animal friendly, cruelty-free and do not test on animals. To learn more about cruelty-free products visit Choose Cruelty Free, a non-profit organization dedicated to stopping product testing on animals.


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