Dear President-Elect Donald Trump,

My name is Amanda Lutz and I am in 8th grade. I am writing this letter to you today to bring up a very important issue which I feel very strongly about, and that is  commercial animal testing. Many brands test on animals, including Arm and Hammer, Listerine, Covergirl, Clean and Clear, Almay and Febreeze. Testing these products on them can cause much harm to the defenseless animal because they are subject to whatever we do with them, and they have no choice but to suffer for our sake. To me, animal testing is a cruel and inhumane way to test possibly deadly products. Many animals used for experimentation are severely malnourished and are subject to long periods of physical restraint and infliction of pain.

Animals are also much different from humans, and because of that, could give incorrect evaluation results. Size, shape and biological structure are all key components in testing and experimenting with products. There are also many other ways that we can test products, because the technological world has advanced so fast in this day and age. From testing in petri dishes to microfluidic chips, I am surprised to report that many, many companies still test on animals.

Even still, almost 95% of animals used in experimentation are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act, or AWA. Mice, fish, birds and rats are the some of the most common types of experimentation animals, and not a single one of those listed animals are covered by the AWA. This is extremely bad for the animals because if injury occurs to the experimentation animal, the AWA has no control over what to to do.

I hope that this extremely important issue makes you consider preventive actions for companies who still wish to animal test. Thank you for your time in discussing this matter.