Dear Future President,

“I don’t like the way animals are treated,” I told my best friends dad when he asked why I was a vegetarian. I have carried this response with me throughout my whole life, and it has never once failed to represent what I believe. Telling him this is more clear in my memory than actually becoming a vegetarian. I am told now that most people do not expect that response from a six year old. While I am against all kinds of animal cruelty, including slaughterhouses and eating meat, I don’t expect it from the whole country. What I do expect is to end animal abuse and animal testing. There are laws against animal abuse, but saying that there are few laws and regulations protecting animals from testing would be an understatement. “The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) (7 U.S.C. § 2131) is the only U.S. federal law that covers animals in research,” according to Neavs, a non profit organization against animal testing. There is a single law against animal testing, but it still has loopholes which leave little protection. Animal testing is not just putting lipstick on bunnies, it’s not a delicate and humane process, it’s animal torture. As Neavs tells us, cosmetic experiments tend to include injecting the animals with different products and chemicals, which can ultimately lead to, ¨diseases, poisoning [...] burning skin, causing brain damage, implanting electrodes into the brain, maiming, blinding...¨ If this kind of process were performed on humans, it would be outlawed immediately, but with the AWA, no procedures on animals are prevented.

Although many companies argue that animal testing is necessary, there are reasons why we should end it, and easy ways to replace it with something that is not abusive. It has been proven that animal testing does not actually help with medical advances as PETA shows when they stated that, ¨Most experiments on animals are not relevant to human health, they do not contribute meaningfully to medical advances, and many are undertaken simply out of curiosity...¨ Companies like to argue that if we took away animal testing, then we would have to perform experiments on humans, or that the experiments they are performing are not cruel. Not only do most animals die during the testing process, but if they claim it's not cruel, then testing on people should not seem like a big deal. Today, there are many people that volunteer to be humanely tested on, so not only would taking animal testing away only limit cruelties, it wouldn’t change how much research companies would be able to do. A few other alternatives to animal testing include human based research, epidemiology, autopsy research, biopsy research, case studies, human based DNA and genetic research, and trial and error methodology. In fact, there are many companies that not only don’t animal test, but are extremely successful and well known. A few cruelty free cosmetics companies include Philosophy, NYX, Elf, and even Urban Decay. These products aren’t less well known or lower quality than companies such as MAC, L'oreal, or Clinique, that do test on animals. It’s not just companies that are moving further away from animal testing norms either, the Animal Legal Defense Fund shows that it’s also countries:

The U.K. has not licensed animal testing for cosmetics for nearly fifteen years. Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany have also banned the use of animals in cosmetic testing. As of 2013, no animals may be used in cosmetic testing in the European Union pursuant to E.U. regulations.

If other countries can succeed without animal testing, so can we. Some States, like California, have started taking steps in the right direction by creating more laws restricting testing, but a few States isn’t enough. The only way to ensure the protection of animals is to protect them by the law, and with more than a single act that doesn’t prevent the worst things that are happening or mention many of the. I ask you, future president, to put an end to this unnecessary torture to animals and to end animal testing. We need you to help create a law that protects animals from all kinds of testing, and not one in favor of those conducting the tests, but one that actually protects animals.

                                                                                                                                                       Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                                       Jensen Sears

Bibliography

"Animal Testing and the Law." Animal Legal Defense Fund. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"Animals Used for Experimentation." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

"Companies That Don't Test on Animals." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"Harm and Suffering | Animal Use in Research." Neavs. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"Laws and Regulations." Neavs. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"Why Animal Testing Is Unnecessary." Shellethics. N.p., 26 May 2016. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"5 Awesome Organizations Fighting to End Animal Testing." One Green Planet. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"8 Reasons Why Animal Testing Doesn't Help Humans." PETA 8 Reasons Why Animal Testing Doesnt Help Humans Comments. N.p., 12 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.