Save Ralph: "No Animal Should Die in The Name of Beauty"
The cost of beauty goes beyond the economical aspect; when we think of cost, what comes to mind? For some it may mean how much a specific beauty product may cost, for others, it may mean how much time is put into the making or the application of a certain beauty product. For others, it can be more about how the cost of beauty or achieving a certain ideal of beauty by the products we use can have a negative effect on our physical and mental health.
But the cost of beauty that I want to bring to your attention is the cost paid by animals who are used for testing purposes when it comes to the making of beauty products, especially from popular beauty brands. While many groups of people have addressed this critical issue by boycotting animal-tested products and brands, creating movements, campaigns, non-profit organizations to bring awareness for those who do not have a voice, it seems that we have addressed this from our human point, which is perfectly fine since as humans, it is important for us to respect and protect the creation around us.
Our physical beauty will not last for a whole lifetime, but many think that temporary beauty is far greater than an animal's lifetime.
What if instead of hearing from a person about how animals feel when tortured due to animal testing purposes. We could hear it from an animal itself? The Humane Society of the United States believed that making a rabbit, an animal very commonly used as ‘testers’; tell humans about the cruel reality that animal testers have to suffer through every day would be more impactful...and it was.
“Save Ralph” is a stop motion animation short film produced by the Humane Society of the United States. As written on the published Youtube page, this three-minute short film introduces Ralph, the protagonist and spokes-bunny of the global campaign to ban animal testing for cosmetics. The video starts with Ralph, an animal tester bunny, all dressed up at their own home who is being interviewed throughout their day and asked to speak about his life as an animal tester bunny. Ralph's appearance is very damaged due to the effects of the testing done on him, this is especially noticeable on the high left eye.
Even as the video starts, Ralph tells the audience that he is an animal testing rabbit and explains his swollen red eye condition by telling the viewer that he has been blinded from this eye as well as being completely deaf from his right ear due to the testing performed on him. As the documentary carries on following Ralph’s day, we learn that his body has been injected with countless chemicals which are causing him lots of painful aches throughout his body. He explains the state of his body in a calm manner by mentioning that it only hurts when he moves but ends up saying “or breathe” which immediately tells the viewer the cruel reality and the pain that animals have to go through in testing labs.
After explaining his condition, Ralph says that all the pain he has endured is justified by saying that animal testers are doing this “for the humans, they are far superior to us animals’ This is a very compelling and heartbreaking sentence because by using animals as testers, as humans, we are diminishing animal lives just so we can use certain products. Ralph explains that human superiority comes from all the accomplishments the human race has achieved such as landing on the moon. As the scene moves, Ralph is shown having breakfast and tells the interviewers that he, as we have learnt, is a test bunny but we also learn that Ralph’s whole family were animal testers and they died as animal testers, to which Ralph replies that he will as well.
This is a very powerful scene because it shows how humans disregard animal’s feelings and sense of family, that humans just use animals to their convenience without paying mind that animals have feelings and families as well and just because they cannot express their emotions through words, it doesn't mean that they are not there. The short motion film progresses and gets more heartbreaking and emotional as it carries through, Ralph is interviewed at a testing center where he and many other rabbits scream for help and for their families. The film ends with Ralph being completely blinded and wounded from the horrible procedures happening at testing centers and shares a message to humans that is meant to hit directly into our consciousness.
Ralph thanks the audience by saying that if it werent for people and for countries that allow animal testing procedures then he would ironically not have a job and live on the streets, but then Ralph says.” well more like a field, like a normal rabbit. The final message of the Humane Society is “No animal should die in the name of beauty”. Often we think that the price we pay for our products is well deserved, we think that the monetary cost involved is the only price paid but this video has proven to us that the price paid for beauty is ugly. The irony that beauty can be bought at the cost of an animal's life shows how many industries no longer view animals as living things but only as items to help increase sales. Many animal lives can be saved if we as consumers choose the beauty of lives, rather than physical appearances that one day will vanish as time progresses. Our physical beauty will not last for a whole lifetime, but many think that temporary beauty is far greater than an animal's lifetime.
Check out the video here.
