Test Animal Day
There same to be special days for all kind of things all around the globe. Just two days ago it was Earth Day and today is (unofficially?) Test Animal Day. Now I have to say that I’m not planning on writing posts every day about certain days around the globe, but some are better than others and deserve a little more attention. Or at least that’s how I feel about it. For example, today is apparently also National Hairball Awareness Day, and that to me just isn’t as interesting / important to write about 
.
So yeah, Test Animal Day. Animals are still used to test new products on, and in some cases I can understand it ‘better’ than in other cases. Not that I agree on it, as I wouldn’t let any of those testers borrow Sam or Cas or any of my other animals from me for testing purposes, but I can understand why they use animals. For instance when they test medication I can understand better why they do it than when they want to test new make-up on animals.
There are still 600.000 annual deaths in the animal testing ‘branch’ in The Netherlands according to Test Animal Day (Dutch website), and that really is something to think about. You can imagine that these deaths are not all in the medicine testing department but also (and who knows maybe mainly) in the make-up / body products area. And the animals are not all monkeys, rats, bunnies or mice but also dogs, cats, horses and other animals.
I try to buy as many products as I can that aren’t tested on animals, but unfortunately tests that have been done in the past (years and years ago) have given the industry substances that are tested and proven safe (now). Make-up companies might be against animal testing and won’t use ingredients anymore that are new and tested on animals but will use ingredients that have been tested on animals a long time ago.
So I guess that means animal tested ingredients can’t always be avoided, but as long as this post makes one person think before they buy a product that is still depending on animal testing, I’m happy. I think it’s important to add that there is already a lot of research done about other tests that don’t involve animals, which are much more reliable and cheaper, and I believe that the industry should support this research and use these tests instead.
Are you aware when you buy products if they are or aren’t tested on animals?
4 Comments on "Test Animal Day"
I’m always relieved when i see the little ‘Not tested on animals’ logo on products I buy. However, as you said products have been tested on animals in the past so it;s almost inevitable that you’ll use something, somewhere that has been tested on an animal. And that’s sad 
I would also like more information on this Hairball Awareness day, my cat will be interested as he is currently on a diet of ‘Hairball Control’ cat food 
This was definitely a good thing to write about. National Hairball Day is pretty funny. though!! I always buy products that do not do animal testing. I think it’s very important and I am always sure to check.
[...] April 24, 2009 (yes only a few days ago) I posted about Test Animal Day, and how that was a little more important than Hairball Awareness Day. I shouldn’t have done [...]
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I definitely try my best to look for products that were not tested on animals. It just seems like the ethical thing to do.
Oh and I would’ve loved to read your thoughts about National Hairball Awareness Day!