What is "Cruelty Free"?

Once upon a time, I blindly thought that expensive meant good. I had heard about animal testing, mental images of sweet, fluffy bunnies strapped to metal gurneys in science fiction - type laboratories while evil scientists poked and prodded and covered them in noxious chemicals, and I believed that if I bought the more expensive, well known brands, I would be safeguarding those poor bunnies. I would not be a part of the problem.

Wrong.

I recently read a blog that really shocked me to the core. Every single makeup brand that graced my makeup bag was guilty of testing on animals. Oh those poor bunnies.

This set me on my mission to becoming "cruelty free".

For a company to be certified as cruelty free, they must not test on animals, but also their entire supply chain must be free from animal testing and cruelty. You will find many cosmetics, cleaning products and so on that claim not to harm animals, but a little more investigation may show that this is not actually the case. One big factor can be whether or not the company in question supplies China, since a requirement for trading personal care products in China is to test on animals. Scary right?

Did you know - 80% of the world still allows products to be tested on animals, and this isn't just limited to the bunnies I mentioned earlier. It includes guinea pigs, hamsters, mice and rats too. (source: www.crueltyfreeinternational.org).

Some of the biggest perpetrators are Proctor & Gamble (think Herbal Essences, Head & Shoulders, Clairol, Olay and Gillette amongst other brands), L'Oreal, Colgate-Palmolive, and Estee Lauder. Shocked yet?

So what can you do about it?

There are a number of reputable websites that allow you to research brands who are cruelty free. They are officially audited on a regular basis, as are their entire supply chains.
Try:
www.crueltyfreeinternational.org
www.peta.org
www.crueltyfreekitty.com

It was partly this research that led me to throwing away the entire contents of my makeup bag, and replacing it all with Barry M - a certified cruelty free brand.

Join the revolution today, and protect those bunnies.

L xx