In early April, the Humane Society International released the short documentary “Save Ralph” to critical acclaim. “Save Ralph” is an animated short film of the daily life of a rabbit with the name of Ralph. The film explains what he goes through when being a cosmetic animal tester, and has caused some CVHS students to rethink their use of cosmetic products. 

CVHS sophomore Madeline Ward found out after her cousin, who is an animal rights activist, that the cosmetic products she uses are being tested on animals. 

“One cosmetic that I use frequently, but on a daily basis, is a Maybelline mascara. Honestly, I didn’t know if my cosmetics were animal tests-free, but I recently researched my mascara. This was because my cousin is actually an animal activist, and I found out my mascara is not animal- test- free and that they’re being tested on animals,” said Ward. 

Ward was disappointed after finding out her Maybelline mascara is a product that is being tested on animals and believes that people should choose their brands more wisely before buying the cosmetic. Maybelline pays and allows their products to be tested on animals when required by law.  

“Honestly it was disappointing the fact that animals are being tested for products met for the public. Seeing how many use these products, I saw that people should know that these products are being tested on animals before buying,” said Ward. 

According to the Humane Society, cosmetics don’t even need to test on animals to assure their products are safe. Animal testing is essentially outdated; now that we have more efficient computer models or human-cell-based testing. These kinds of tests are less expensive than regular animal testing and it takes less time. However, some products still choose to test on animals despite this, hurting the animals to the point of no return, just like they did for Ralph.

“It’s inhumane, for sure. We should stop that and consumers should start buying from other companies that are animal-testing and cruelty free because you really don’t have to test on animals to get your product best,” said CVHS sophomore and incoming Student Council Vice President Isabel Hoffman.

Hoffman is very distressed to learn about the animal experimentation. She even threw out some of her mascara after learning about what they did to animals for tests. Hoffman does not support the testing of animals for beauty products.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ve met someone who has completely cruelty free products that they use. And again, fortunately, for a lot of people, yes. Because cruelty free products do cost more. And a lot of people don’t have enough money to get other products, it’s not right, but I understand where people are coming from,” said Hoffman.

The testing on animals causes them extreme pain. Testing on rabbits for example can cause them to break their own necks trying to get free. The products can stay in their eyes for days, and due to their limited tear fluids, cause inflammation, a burning pain and possibly even corrosion. We see in “Save Ralph” just how painful it is for the animals being tested.

“I guess there could be a way that they should get the companies that do that. They should not lower their prices only because consumers can’t afford them. I mean, they should do the best that they can to get the profit. But in reality it all comes back to the cruelty. Places that are using animals should really be banned or there should be a law that raises their price prices or allows for like tax benefits if you buy from cruelty free companies,” said Hoffman.

“It was really hard to watch. I mean I wanted to cry after I saw that, just because they’re personalizing the animals like they’re making them human animals are animals or humans and so humanizing them for us to see is like really hard in person, not in person, you know, like up front, it’s easier to, you know, buy something without knowing the backstory and it’s even harder to buy something with knowing the backstory and the actual stuff that goes on behind the scenes, so that was really hard,” said Hoffman. 

In addition, Ward recommends students to watch the animated short film to realize the pain that animals go through on a daily basis for these products to be released to the public.

“I would recommend students to watch this short film because it creates awareness and highlights the importance of why and what shouldn’t be tested for makeup lotions, shampoos, etc. It will make students rethink this issue when buying products and hopefully inspiring actions to be taken in order to prevent this,” Ward said. 

The message of the film is about choosing your brands wisely and not about how much product people use in general. Cause at the end of the day, once people buy a product that’s been tested on animals, it doesn’t matter if they use a drop out of it or the whole bottle in a go.

Visit https://www.hsi.org/issues/animal-testing/ for more information about animal testing.