The Double Standards of Animal Crusading Countries

During the gruelling research for Living Cruelty Free, the thing that has annoyed me the most is the double standards some countries have. Two-faced, I call them.

Read on to find out what I’m talking about - 

It’s illegal to test cosmetics on animals in Australia, but that doesn’t mean cosmetics that are on sale in Australia are not tested on animals. Companies are allowed to sell cosmetics there even if they are tested on animals elsewhere.

China is the only country in the world that makes testing cosmetics on animals compulsory if they will be sold in that country. It’s for this reason that The Body Shop doesn’t have stores in China.

Many cosmetics companies throughout the world get past animal testing bans by having their products tested on animals in other countries, often China. Labour in China is cheap and animals have no real protection.

The production of Foie gras is banned in the UK, but the import of this so called delicacy that involves the force-feeding of ducks and geese until their livers get to up to ten time their natural size, isn’t banned.

Fur farms are banned in the UK, but the sale of fur isn’t.

When you buy leather you usually have no way of knowing what animal it comes from. It could come from a cow, a snake or even a dog or cat. Other products have to be labelled, so why not leather?

Most people are unaware that most of the goose down and duck down that is used in mattresses, comforters, pillows and cushions comes the live plucking of birds who are stripped of their feathers whilst they are alive. Most products don’t state whether the feathers and down came from birds that were already dead or ones who were plucked whilst still alive.

Sneaky companies get round people objecting to fur by having real fur in garments and labelling it as ‘fake fur’ or ‘faux fur.’

Free-range eggs mean different things depending on what country you are in. For instance in the USA, birds can have access to a few minutes of daylight and still lay eggs that are called free-range.

Isn’t it time that countries got consistent? For instance there should be a world-wide definition of free-range and if fur farms are banned in the UK so too should fur?

And that’s how veggiegirl2011 sees it.

Are you funding animal experiments (without knowing about it)?

Animal Aid are currently running a campaign warning people that charities they may be supporting may be conducting animal experiments. According to their literature, two of the worst offenders are The British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK.

They've now come up with a list of charities that do fund animal experiments and those that don't. To see where charities stand, visit www.animalaid.org.uk  

Why should we care about whether these charities fund experiments on animals?

2 main reasons -

ONE - These experiments cause unnecessary suffering to animals that have no one to speak for them as they live out a miserable and painful existence. Labs are poorly monitored (if they are monitored at all), condemning many animals to a lifetime of suffering in a cage.

TWO - They are wasting your money.

Experiments on animals are unreliable and just because a drug or procedure works on an animal doesn't mean it will work on a human. These animals are often given diseases and conditions they wouldn't naturally get or genetically engineered to have them.

Charities who fund experiments on animals claim they do it because they want to find a cure. The truth is animal experiments often take us further away from a cure and not closer. They waste money and time. Time that people who are ill may not have to wait for a cure or a treatment.

It’s not just in the UK that you could be unwittingly funding animal experiments. Most charities are hardly upfront about it. This surely begs the question - surely if this is essential they would tell people they pay for animal research?

For charities in the USA who don't fund animal experiments, visit - www.humaneseal.org

You can check out charities in the following countries –

USA

Canada

Australia

UK