Animal Testing

image of guinea pig, animal testing cosmetics

Cosmetic Animal Testing Is Cruel – But There Are Alternatives

Animal testing is an outdated method of testing the safety of cosmetics. While many companies still rely on it, consumers are demanding cruelty-free alternatives.

Explainer: What Is Animal Testing?

Vaccines, medications and cosmetics rely on animal testing even though the process is cruel, unreliable and often inaccurate.

monkey testing

What This Mother Jones Story Got Wrong on Primate Testing

A recent Mother Jones story on the shortage of lab monkeys failed to ask questions about the ethics of animal testing.

Animal Testing Isn’t Just Ineffective. It’s Holding Us Back.

The FDA believes that animal testing is necessary for medical research. But according to lawmakers, researchers, and scientists, that kind of thinking is holding us back.

national cancer institute samples

Sentient Media Podcast: Dr. Aysha Akhtar on the End of Animal Testing

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Akhtar about her work building a world where animal testing is no longer the default.

Enclosed monkeys huddled over cages

Veterinary Records Reveal Primate Research Centers’ Long History of Violence

Decades of welfare violations at the National Primate Research Centers have led many in the scientific community to question the purpose of experimenting on animals.

Animal Testing: What You Need to Know

More than 90 percent of drugs that pass clinical trials in animals fail to prove effective for use in humans. Yet, the FDA still spends millions on animal testing.

What Happens to Lab Rats After Testing?

Most laboratory research that uses animals relies on mice and rats as test subjects. Learn more about how these animals are treated and what happens to them after the experiment ends.

An End to Animal Testing Is Within Reach

With public knowledge of what happens inside animal experimentation facilities at an all-time high, the cruel practice may finally be on its way out.

woman holding cosmetics

These Big Brands Still Test Makeup on Animals

In the U.S., the FDA encourages nonanimal testing for cosmetic products. So why do so many companies still test makeup on animals?

animal testing

Animals Testing, Exposed: Millions of Animals Suffer in Labs Every Year

Through animal testing, researchers try and often fail to determine if the products are safe for humans by examining their effects on animals.

First Carbon Offsets. Now, Animal Testing Offsets?

Can paying for an animal testing-free future make people feel better about getting vaccinated? Jessica Scott-Reid explores the novel new concept of animal testing offsets.

A purpose bred beagle at a veterinary school.

This New Bill Could Phase Out Animal Testing for Good

The Humane Research and Testing Act of 2021 address the growing need to replace animals in research. The bill also calls for the acceptance of “valid and reliable” alternative testing methods.

Plane at airport

How Airlines Enable Animal Suffering

A long-tailed macaque is flying through the air. Sadly, he is not leaping between trees. Like so many others, he is in the cargo hold of an airplane on his way to an animal experimentation facility.

The Tale of Two Lab Kittens: The One We Saved, the One We Didn’t, and Why It’s Historic

The U.S government is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on wasteful cat experiments. When will we close this shameful chapter of American history? White Coat Waste Project investigates.

Growing Human Cells in Monkey Embryos Is Problematic—But Not for the Reasons People Think

The main problem lies in the similarities with conventional animal use: Humans are once again planning to create sentient beings so that we can exploit them for our own benefit.

Vegan Doctor: Boycotting COVID-19 Vaccines Won’t End Animal Testing

Public trust in the vaccination process is soaring. Although for some vegans, deciding whether or not to get the vaccine—which was tested on animals—may feel slightly more complicated.

Chimpanzee rescued from an invasive research lab. USA, 2008.

Animal Advocates & Environmentalists Clash Over Animal Testing

Environmental organizations’ desire to protect the planet is admirable, but their misplaced trust in animal testing could be doing more harm than good.

beagle farm

Marshall BioResources Is a Factory Farm Like You’ve Never Seen Before

Inside Marshall BioResources, thousands of beagles are bred for laboratories across the U.S. It’s big money for Marshall, with many labs paying more than $1,000 per dog.

Macaque Breeding Facility in Laos, photo by J. McArthur

Stolen from the Wild: The Use and Abuse of Mauritian Monkeys for Research

Renowned primate expert Dr. Jane Goodall has joined the chorus of people urging the Mauritian government to end the international trade of research monkeys.

octopus research

Researchers Have a New Test Subject: The Octopus

The use of cephalopods in laboratory research is on the rise, with several labs in the U.S. raising octopuses for their own use and as a supply for researchers around the world.

common octopus creature

Can We Stop “Alienating” Octopuses?

Octopuses look extraterrestrial but are not alien in any way, shape, or form. We need to be mindful that referring to octopuses as “alien” may be facilitating their exploitation.

animal testing lab

Testing Our Luck: Will Animal Research Give Us a COVID-19 Vaccine?

The pandemic has created an immediate need to produce a safe vaccine—a process that researchers say can take upwards of 20 years. Is animal testing slowing us down?

The Animals We Often Overlook

In our news coverage, we often focus our attention on the welfare of companion animals and traditional farmed animals like cows, pigs, and chickens, but millions of other animals need a voice, too.

monkey lab animal

COVID-19 Exposing Flawed Moral Framework Behind Animal Testing

We talk about the “new normal” to describe life after COVID-19, but perhaps biomedical research itself may also be ready for a new normal, one that excludes needless animal suffering.

lab animal rat

The Sac Rack: Death’s Waiting Room for Animals in Labs

Former undercover investigator Lindsay Oliver shares her harrowing experience euthanizing animals at research labs. “The gas was turned on and then we sat, waiting for them to perish.”

Mass Killing of Lab Animals During Pandemic Calls into Question Necessity and Cost of Animal Models

When researchers needed fast results for a possible COVID-19 vaccine, they skipped over testing the new drug on animals first. If the tests were “extraneous,” why experiment on animals to begin with?

lab mice test

Other Animals Are Not Humans’ Sacrificial Fall Guys

Using lab animals to solve human-made problems amounts to more of the same hubris that spawned the COVID-19 pandemic in the first place.

genetically engineered animal

Report: Half the Country Is Against Genetically Engineered Animal Testing

According to the PEW Research Center, half of Americans support genetically engineered animal testing, while…

Cruelty-Free, Anyone?

China used to require cosmetics to be tested on animals, which effectively banned cruelty-free brands like The…

Exposing Beagle Farming in the U.S.

Dogs kept in brutal conditions, right here in the United States? Sadly, it is more common than you’d think. The Intercept covers a major rescue operation exposing one dog farming operation.

Elon Musk Is Tapping Monkey Brains, and He’s Not Alone

And he isn’t the only one tapping a connection between animals and our keyboards. The digital animal research field is so big that even space agencies are signing onto the project.