Do you know about Animal Testing

Our Leash Your Fitness January book club book is “The Dogs were Rescued (and so was I)” by Teresa Rhyne. After reading this book, I asked Teresa to write a blog post about Animal Testing so that we can educate people on what is going on! I was oblivous to it so I know others are as well.  You can read our book review on the book and feel free to join us for our January book club to discuss it! 

I’d like to introduce you to Percival. He loves squeak toys, sleeps anywhere there is a sunbeam, is obsessed with cuddling with his human “dad,” prefers burrowing under covers, takes toys in his mouth with him when he goes outside to do his “business,” and loves everyone he meets. He approaches all humans, but particularly men, expecting chest and ear scratches, and if he takes a particular shine to you, he’ll sit on your feet and lean into you, soaking in the togetherness.

And I’d like to introduce you to number 1800192. He has a tattoo of that number in his right ear, and for the first eighteen months of his life that’s all he was known as in the pharmaceutical lab where he was an unwilling participant of animal testing.  He was de-barked (a cruel practice of cutting the vocal chords), and lived in a cage without treats, toys, sunshine or love. For eighteen months. All for the sake of shampoo. Or maybe it was oven cleaner. Or eyeshadow. Bleach? Aspirin? Cough medicine? We don’t know.  We just know that he was one of 70,000 dogs used in animal testing in the United States each year.

Yes, Percival is #1800192—they are the same dog, and yet not the same at all. We adopted Percival from Beagle Freedom Project in April of 2013– after BFP rescued him and ten other male beagles from a pharmaceutical lab in Northern California.  Percival had a foster mom for four months before he came to us  and she did the heavy-lifting of getting him adjusted to people, to a warm and comfortable bed, to housebreaking and, most importantly, to trusting humans. When we got him, he still had night terrors, where he’d wake up frightened, unsure where he was, “screaming” in a raspy, damaged voice, and shaking. We’d talk to him, pet him, hold him, and assure him he was safe now. Car rides left him trembling, vomiting, and in what we came to call a “transportation trance.” Smoke terrified him. A large statue of a Greek God (in a white robe) spooked him and set him running.  But with time, #1800192 left (except that tattoo) and Percival the imp, the clown, the fun-loving, crazy-affectionate beagle emerged. And a household of cruelty-free consumers was born.

You may be surprised to learn that dogs are used in animal testing, let alone 70,000 annually (and 96% of those are beagles). And I’m usually asked, why beagles?  The answer to that question is what I just described to you. Because beagles are friendly, forgiving, adaptable dogs, they are favored by the companies who do animal testing. They’re also small enough to fit in cages, and they have short hair, which makes some of the skin and medical procedure testing easier. But mostly, it’s their warm, eager to please personalities that make them the perfect victim.

So why is it done and what can we all do about it? Both answers are simple. It’s done for profit. Animal testing of cosmetic and household products is not required by law, but old systems are in place and change is expensive.  For a time if a company wanted to sell their product in China, it had to be tested on animals. So many companies chose to maim, torture and kill animals rather than forgo a little profit. And it’s no longer required in China, but these companies continue to test on animals…again because it’s cheaper to keep doing the same thing than to put new testing protocols in place.  And let me be clear, Percival has lovely natural black “eyeliner,” like many beagles do. But that’s not because eye-liner was test applied on him in the lab, drawn on smoothly, nicely, and so natural looking. No, products are tested for maximum tolerated dosage—which means the dogs are forced to drink the products (yep, shampoo, bleach, furniture polish), until they figure out at what dosage more than 50% of the dogs die. Or the dogs are forced to inhale the fumes through a mask secured to their faces, until the same outcome is determined. (We wonder if that’s where Percival’s  fear of smoke comes from.)  They’re not shampooing the dogs, or extending their eyelashes. They’re torturing them—and most of the dogs don’t survive or are killed when the test ends.

And of course, if we keep buying these products, they’ll keep testing them on animals – killing the dogs and collecting the profits. They’re hoping you don’t ever learn the price that is really paid for the products you buy. And yet, there are plenty of companies that don’t test on animals and make perfectly safe, effective products. So the “what can we do” question is easy to answer as well. Stop buying the products. Look for the Leaping Bunny© logo on products or download the Cruelty Cutter app for your phone—it allows you to scan the bar code of any product and learn if it was tested on animals (be prepared to be shocked and horrified at first). It will take some time to replace your products and find new ones that are right for you, but you’ll find them. Both Leaping Bunny and Beaglefreedomproject.org have lists of cruelty-free companies on their sites. Please take a look and shop cruelty-free.  It’s worth it for the animals. Percival, for one, thanks you very much. In fact, if he met you, he’d sit on your feet.

To see video from Percival’s rescue, click HERE

Teresa Rhyne
Author of the #1 NY Times Bestseller
The Dog Lived (and So Will I)
and The Dogs Were Rescued (and So Was I)
www.teresarhyne.com
facebook.com/thedoglived
@teresarhyne on Twitter

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