I noticed that a bottle of shampoo that I bought had the message, “THIS FINISHED PRODUCT NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS”. I found this message confusing. Is it a warning? Is it really saying that because it was not tested on animals that it is possible that the finished concoction could be hazardous to my health due to some random chemical reaction?

Or, is it proudly stating that their product is not tested on bunnies and monkeys, but that the individual ingredients had been tested on animals by some anti-bunny group. This makes me wonder whether I can buy reports on the Internet on each of the individual ingredients on the net.

Even if we were to ban animal testing today, I am guessing that we have pretty much tested each chemical on poor hapless bunnies and monkeys. At this point, I think people just do animal testing just for fun.

It is not even that I am necessarily opposed to animal testing. I do believe that testing products on humans, at least initially, is a pretty bad idea. Animals are a lower, although often more attractive, order of species. They pretty much breed rats and bunnies for the purpose of scientific research. It is not like they are gathering pet bunnies and rats for the purpose of animal testing. Further, these are not pets. They are not socialized in any meaningful way in which to make good pets.

That being said, I still think that we have probably exhausted any real research that may come out of animal testing.