Expert: Stephen Vantassel - 2/17/2010

Question
I am doing a research paper on animal testing for cosmetic purposes, and I was wondering if you had any information, or a stance on the issue? If so, what information can you tell me about the topic?

Answer
It's not really a great focus of my research. But I have a couple of comments.

First, do we really want to have products used that aren't tested properly? Would you want your children, parents, friends to be harmed because the products weren't tested enough?

Second, many so called cruelty free products today simply rely on testing that was done previously on animals for the ingredients they use. So if you use research from animals but don't test your product specifically is it really fair to call your product cruelty free?

Third, why animal rights protest industry advocates don't change the tort laws is beyond me. It isn't fair to protest animal testing of cosmetics and then not give companies who choose to do so protection from lawsuits if humans get injured by their products.