In the past, experimenting on animals was viewed as a way to test products based on how well they work or if they cause any dangers for the body. However, recent studies have shown that testing on animals isn’t even a reliable source anymore.

90 percent of drugs fail in human trials despite their success in animal trials. In fact, cancer drugs have the lowest success rate at five percent. Therefore, referring to animal testing as the closest test to decide its safety for humans is irrelevant with such low success rates.

Another study recently found that out of 93 dangerous side effects caused by the drugs tested, only 19 percent of them could have been predicted during animal testing.

As for safety, it’s plain and simple. It’s no longer safe to test on animals and then assume a human would have the same reaction. For example, while testing Vioxx, a drug used to combat arthritis, it was found to be safe when tested on monkeys, a species that shares 96 percent of our DNA. However, this drug has now been known to cause around 320,000 heart attacks and strokes and approximately 140,000 deaths worldwide.

Over the past decade, there have been many exploits in animal testing labs around the world. A well-known organization known as People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has voiced their complaints and problems with animal testing profusely and are open activists against animal cruelty.

All in all, testing on animals is just flat-out inhumane. Breathing species in tiny cages never to step foot outside of a laboratory is in the past, and society is better than that, nowadays.

Videos have gone viral on all social media outlets showing animals who have never stepped foot on grass before after spending the entirety of their lives locked in tiny cages.

In 2015, a video of rescuers of a lab in South Korea showcased a group of approximately 10-15 beagles rescued after being too old for testing. They were set to be euthanized before a group known as Beagle Freedom Project came to the rescue.

The dogs were sent overseas to California, where they would taste their first ounce of freedom and experience something they had never known before: love and affection.

“It was a moving scene for the crowd of well-wishers, but for the dogs themselves it was only the first tentative step on the grassy road to a better life,” journalist Stephen Messenger wrote in his article on The Dodo after experiencing the moving event.

Aside from the idea of torturing animals for the sake of our medicine and health, what about beauty? Although many makeup brands have recently steered away from testing on animals, a few continue to either endorse it or take part in it.

Multi-million dollar beauty companies such as NARS, L’oreal, Estée Lauder, MAC, Benefit and many more continue to work with laboratories to test their beauty products on animals. Has humanity sunk that low? To better enhance features one may or may not have, animals must suffer the consequences.

Although companies such as these have continued to test on animals, companies just as wealthy and successful have opted out of it. Anastasia Beverly Hills, Urban Decay, Ecotools, Morphe, NYX and more have pledged to be at least cruelty-free, some even going as far to be 100% vegan.

To support cruelty-free brands, stop buying from companies that condone animal testing and/or take part in it. For more information, visit PETA.org.