Can’t tell the B***hit from the lies - Lies that animal testing companies tell

I’ve been doing a lot of reading recently of the sites of companies who claim not to test on animals.

Here are the moist common lies that animal testing companies spout -

"No retailer or manufacturer can categorically state that ‘none’ of their raw materials or ingredients has – at some time in the past - been tested on animals. The majority of individual raw materials used in cosmetics today have been through some kind of animal testing process."

Saying this is rubbish. Companies who qualify for the leaping bunny accreditation, which in my opinion is the ONLY cruelty free standard you can trust, have got to say that after a certain date neither their products or the ingredients were not tested on animals. Of course there is absolutely no way of knowing absolutely whether an ingredient was tested on animals in the past, but to me companies saying this is an excuse for testing on animals recently.

‘We support FRAME (FUND for the REPLACEMENT of ANIMALS in MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS) in an effort to eliminate reliance in the industry on animal testing.’

Very laudable indeed, but sit still doesn’t mean they are cruelty free. Just because a company backs the bid to replace animal experiments doesn’t mean they don’t conduct them themselves or use companies that do. In fact, L’Oreal who are fighting the EU animal cosmetics testing ban are spending loads of cash on finding experiments that don’t use animals. They are doing this in case they are banned from animal testing by law and not because of any good intentions on their part.

"We are against animal testing."

Not so much a lie as an attempt to mislead. Just because they are against it doesn’t mean they don’t do it. I’m against a lot of things, like eating animals and people buying pets instead of adopting them, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

"We only test on animals where required by law."

In only one country do cosmetics have to be tested on animals by law. That's in China. Don't sell products in China then as Urban Decay decided to do following an outrcty on Facebook and Twitter.

The real deal

Unless a company can say that neither their finished products, or the ingredients, are tested by them or their suppliers or on the behalf of them and their suppliers, then they are NOT cruelty free.

Note – to cosmetic companies – leave the bunnies, mice and Beagles alone. Testing cosmetics and toiletries on animals is unnecessary and cruel and very, very unscientific.

For more information on spotting animal testing companies, check out Living Cruelty Free.