India Bans Animal Testing... What does this mean for us?

The most recent and exciting news has just come in that India has banned testing cosmetics on animals and thanks to recent campaigning by the Be Cruelty-Free India group, all cosmetics companies in India have to use modern non-invasive tests to clear their products through Indias regulatory committee.

As far as I am concerned, the fact that animal testing is still a very large business is not of much interest to me. I know this may sound cold-hearted, but the truth is, I believe all animals are born with a purpose. Cows and pigs and chickens are born to produce us food, dogs make lovely pets and goldfish are for winning at games fairs. Say what you like about me, but it is the yorkshire farming blood in me that tells me that. But to fit in with that belief than all animals that are abused, dissected, injected with deadly bacteria, have mascara shoved down their throats is not something which sits comfortably on my conscience. It is never great enough to make me do something about it, like some people do, but I can see it is not right, in any circumstances.

This was made even more prevalent to me when I watched an NSPCC documentary made about the animal testing industry here in the UK, granted it was biased, but you have to look at these things for their strengths. The one point I took away from it was that animal testing is so inefficient, it might as well not be used. The film went on the list a whole host of things that had been OK on animals but have caused terrible outbreaks and counter-illnesses since. Granted they didn't mention the testing that had been accurate, but if you have things like thalidomide side-effects to stand testimony to the reliability of animal testing, it really isn't worth it!

So back to India. A developing country with still a very very large amount of poverty strife across many parts, with a very diverse culture in relation to western political powers. Ideas behind their religion, which we often refer to as outdated and unexplainable are just a few little pointers to the fact that India is not the greatest and most advanced of all countries in the world.

But many things have impressed me of India, the first and foremost being it's disciple of peace, Mohatma Ghandi, who should serve as an inspiration and a guardian angel to all politicians over the world. But along side this, the reaction to the traumatic events that occurred earlier this year, and now India come out with this absolutely staunching political statement about fair treatment of animals, in one of the most fiscally diverse countries in the world. Cruelty-Free India.

I really do admire the work being done in India. Some of the people there have so little to possess that their flame hearted passion for certain things is really awe-inspiring. And I often think it is something that we lack here in western civilisation, where everything is peachy and  lovely, that we don't have to worry about anything greater than our neighbour starts making far too much noise after 9pm. 

And if one person reading this takes some inspiration to go out and try and change the world in the smallest of ways, then that is something positive. You may not be able to tell David Cameron to let everybody go to university free of charge, but you may be able to make somebody smile, change the way they think about the world, create something that you will be remembered for, because it is positive, not for negative influences. It is our world after, all, and therefore our duty to do something about it. If the entire 9 billion strong population did something small and insignificant, then think how much it might add up to, with every single person doing something. We could get the world redecorated in a myriad of beautiful and exciting new colours and layouts in just a few days.

While that whole principal makes me sound way too much like a hippie to even take myself seriously, the thought behind it is a sound philosophical, and scientific one. We have all of this modern technology, to be able to recreate the way a human reacts in an instant, but we choose not to use it, for the sake of money. So, here is a life lesson if there ever was one. This world is not all about us, seeing as we share it with so many other people, and have so many more generations to live through our successes or disasters, let's do the best we can to make it the best we can. Who's in?

Thanks for reading.

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