Animal testing: Child's take cruel practice helps us see how stupid and nonsensical it is – Hayley Matthews

My three-year-old keeps asking about what warning signs on things mean.

A mural in Paris urges people to campaign for the upholding of the animal testing ban in the EU (Picture: Kristy Sparow/Getty Images for Dove & The Body Shop)

You know the ones, they have the red circle with a line through it advising people not to do something like stand in a shopping trolley or bin batteries etc.

Well, he's now started asking about the bunny on the back of shampoo bottles. When I started to explain to him about how it means that the product has not being tested on animals, he looked at me with a very confused face.

I then tried to break it down, saying “it means it’s not been poured in rabbits eyes”, and “they do this to make sure it’s safe to use”. I could see he found it very strange.

This is where I would normally tell someone a quote from Ricky Gervais which goes, “Dear intelligent people of the world, don’t get shampoo in your eyes. It really stings. There. Done. Now ****ing stop torturing animals.”

I don't think a three-year-old would quite understand Ricky’s quote. However, it is one of my favourites and I tried my best to relay the message.

I could see his little face as he took in the news that people actually purposefully put shampoo into animals eyes. There were lots of "why mummy?”, to which I could only answer “because people can be cruel and stupid sometimes”.

There are so many things that when you explain why we do them out loud, they don't make any sense whatsoever, so to explain them to kids can be quite difficult.

Here's hoping they can change such stupid, nonsensical ways and make a better world a better place for us all!

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