Safety tests are conducted on a wide range of chemicals and products, including drugs, vaccines, cosmetics, household cleaners, pesticides, foodstuffs, and packing materials. The safety testing of chemicals and consumer products probably accounts for only about 10 percent to 20 percent of the use of animals in laboratories, or approximately two to four million animals in the United States. Yet the use of animals in safety testing figures prominently in the animal research controversy. It raises issues such as the ethics and humaneness of deliberately poisoning animals,
the propriety of harming animals for the sake of marketing a new cosmetic or household product, the applicability of animal data to humans, and the possibility of sparing millions of animals by developing alternatives to a handful of widely used procedures.
The Animals in Research section is committed to promoting alternatives to the use of animals in product testing as well as in biomedical research and education. Alternatives are scientific methods that accomplish one or more of the "Three Rs": They replace the use of animals in a scientific procedure; they reduce the number of animals used in a procedure; and/or they refine a procedure so the animals experience less pain, suffering or discomfort.
The HSUS plays an integral role in encouraging manufacturers to produce and consumers to purchase household products and cosmetics that have not been tested on animals. Launched in 1996, the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics represents seven U.S. animal protection organizations, including The HSUS, as well as international partners from the European Union and Canada. The aim of the coalition is to urge cosmetics and household products manufacturers to sign on to the Corporate Standard of Compassion of Animals. This is a rigorous product-labeling and manufacturing policy that ensures manufacturers and suppliers will not conduct or commission animal tests and will not use any ingredient or formulation that is tested on animals. Companies that sign the standard may portray the coalition's "leaping bunny" logo on all of their products as proof of their commitment to the manufacturing of "cruelty-free" products.
