Considering the furor raised about using animals for testing, are there alternatives to using such testing? What are the main tests that use animals and alternatives that would achieve similar results? There is a lot of controversy about using animals to test cosmetics. Animal rights organizations feel that it is unnecessary and uncalled for. The Food and Drug Administration have no law that cosmetics have to be tested on animals. The main reason cosmetic companies continue to use animals to test their products instead of the alternatives is because they are afraid of getting laws suites. The alternatives to animal testing have not yet been validated, therefore if they were taken to court they may not win the case if these alternatives were used. If companies would recognize the consistency and validity of these products then maybe animal testing will not be needed. Two of the main tests that companies use are the Draize Test and the Irritancy Test. These tests are not needed because there are other tests that don't use animals and give the same if not better results. The Draize Test is used to measure the harmfulness of the ingredients that are in cosmetics and household products. The test involves dripping the substance into a rabbit's eye and recording the results. Scientists use rabbits because they have large eyes and no tear ducts to wash away the chemical. Reactions vary from slight irritation to ulceration and complete blindness. The rabbits are restrained to keep from clawing their eyes. All of the animals are usually killed at the end of the test, or "recycled" into toxicity tests. R. Sharpe writes in his book, The Cruel Deception: The Use of Animals in Medical Research, the Draize Test should not be used because there are a number of differences between the human eye and the rabbit eye. Rabbits have a third eyelid, they have less tear fluid to wash away irritants, they have a more alkaline eye (humans have a pH of 7.