Is Animal Testing Used in Your Dog Or Cats Flea and Tick Product?
You may not realize it, but inhumane animal testing is most likely used in the registration process of your dog or cat’s flea and tick control product. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires drug companies that manufacture and sell toxic chemical flea and tick pesticides to perform animal testing on helpless laboratory dogs and cats. The procedures involved will not only break your heart, but also send you searching for natural flea and tick treatments instead. One common test is called the Lethal Dose 50 Percent (L50). This procedure exposes animals to a particular chemical in order to determine the dose necessary to kill 50 percent of the test population. Between 60 and 100 animals are required, and testing spans a time period from two weeks to several years. Since animals refuse to swallow noxious chemicals, they are force-fed liquid chemicals by stomach tube or through a hole cut in the animal’s throat. Other variations of animal testing include forcing the test su
