Testing on animals is controversial. A recent report issued by the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) provides some interesting information. The first bit of good news is that animal testing is down, based on their figures, by 6% from 2013 to 2014. The overall numbers dropped from 891,161 to 834,453. The lowest number on record.
Testing on cats has decreased by 13%. This is very welcome news for cat caretaker/guardians.
Before I provide some more ‘cat testing info’ it has to stated that the released statistics are shockingly incomplete. Almost all animal testing, 95% of it, is carried out on rats and mice. Statistics relating to these animals are excluded from the report. I find this very strange. What are they trying to hide? Also the report does not explain the purpose of the research on all animals. This is a dire omission which indicates a lack of transparency. There is not much point to producing copious figures if they are only a small part of the whole.
Another point worth making is that modern science is removing the need to animal test if it ever was justified, which it is not in my book.
Back to cats. Here are some statistics on cat testing.
Of cats that underwent testing causing pain but with no pain killers administered (the worst kind of animal testing, I presume) Missouri was the biggest ‘offender’ by far. In fact no states conducted this kind of testing except Missouri and Illinois. Thirty (30) cats were tested this way in Missouri and just 2 in Illinois. So in the entire USA, according to these statistics, 32 cats were tested in this manner.
The three US states in which the greatest number of cats were put through animal testing of any kind were:
- Minnesota – 2,908
- Ohio – 1929
- Missouri – 1616
The best US states – meaning the states in which the least number of animal tests in general were carried out – are:
- Alaska – 0
- Connecticut – 0
- Montana – 0
- New Hampshire – 0
With regard to animal testing on cats which involved pain and pain drugs administered (7,485 in all) the states where the most testing took place are:
- Minnesota – 1,239
- North Carolina – 642
- Ohio – 525
Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio appear to be the main culprits when it comes to testing products on cats.
Anyone who cares about animal welfare should dislike (or hate) animal testing. In Europe animal testing is banned for cosmetics and there are alternatives. A lot of people believe it should be banned period. It can’t be justified in the 21st century with science as it is – able to find alternatives which are more accurate and which avoid animal cruelty.
If you are a bit geeky, you can see all the APHIS statistics on this page
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Note: the charts are courtesy the NAVS website.
