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DCL
When you see "no animal testing" on a product label, you might think about experiments on rats or mice. But all kinds of animals are used for all kinds of purposes, some a little more shocking than others.
(A quick aside for those concerned about animal testing: "no animal testing" can specifically refer to the final product you see on the shelf—regardless of how individual ingredients were produced. "Against animal testing" does not mean the company doesn't use animal testing.)
Dogs, for example. Tens of thousands of dogs are used in research labs and medical schools around the country in heart, lung, and cancer research, transplantation experiments, and microbiology, among other kinds of experimentation—as well as in toxicity studies for human drugs, food additives, and industrial chemicals, according to AAVS.
Friendly beagles are the most popular for research purposes because, ironically, of their docile nature.
But dogs aren't the only ones...
Cats for pediatric study
Once a widespread practice in hospitals and now down to one or a few (known) sites, cats serve as a model for teaching students child intubation procedures—meaning hard plastic tubes are forced down cats' (and ferrets') windpipes. This can cause bleeding, swelling, collapsed lungs, scarring of throat tissue in the cats—or even death.
That's for a course in Pediatric Advanced Life Support, but cats are also used in a procedure where air is forced into cats' chest cavities, and students then practice inserting a needle to remove the excess air.
Chimps - from the Air Force to research labs
They have a history of use in the Air Force, for car safety (they served as crash test dummies before people came up with the idea of using actual dummies), and though labs are now prohibited from breeding or importing wild-caught chimps for medical research, the ones that do still exist in the labs continue to be used in invasive experiments. Most often used for hepatitis, AIDS, and cancer research, chimps in labs live in isolation from one another and have been found living in stressful, horrible, abusive conditions. The U.S., however, is the only country that still allows chimps to be used in research. Moon bears in Asia Bear farms across Asia use "moon bears," which are actually Asiatic black bears, for their bile. The bears are kept in tiny cages and every day, through giant and often-infected holes in their stomachs, are "milked" for their bile, which is used in traditional medicine that many say can instead be made easily from herbs or synthetics. Farms have been known to keep bears for 30 years, which is approximately the lifespan of the bear—but thanks to efforts by Animals Asia and perhaps other local activists, the practice might be on its way out. In China, where the practice is most prevalent, 20 out of 32 provinces are free of bear farms. Lab monkeys Monkeys (and chimps are not monkeys, despite how much people like to clump all primates together) are also used in invasive research for things like drug toxicology and vaccine testing. Like chimps, they endure cruel treatment and horrible conditions, because even minimal regulations are barely enforced—even when something happens like 30 monkeys being found cooked alive. The penalty for that: a $14,000 fine, and the lab was able to continue going about its business.
