Cruelty-free. We’ve heard, we’ve read, we’ve been told but we ignored it. This hasn’t been in my mind until two hours ago when I was about to place an order for Rimmel cosmetics through Asos website. It was what stated on Paula’s Choice product review page that made me sign out from my account and close the page. The powerful sentence was just a four letter words, which said – Tested On Animals: Yes. That four letter words was staring at me directly from the monitor of my notebook.

As this is rather a sensitive issue, I will be quoting and summarising from PETA.org and GoCrueltyFree.org for your convenient and easy understanding. There’s so much info in both website or even the internet that I would suggest you to visit the website and do some research if you’re free.

What is Cruelty-free?

Cruelty-free is a label for products or activities that do not harm or kill animals in accordance with animal rights movement. So how do you determine something as not cruelty-free? Products or even certain ingredients tested on animals are deemed as not cruelty free. Various tests done on these animals are often painful and cause suffering and even death of hundreds of thousands of animals every year. Can you imagine how many innocent lives are sacrificed for human sake? According to The Leaping Bunny, some product label claimed that their brand is ‘not tested on animals’ or ‘against animal testing’. These statement are often confusing and do not guarantee that the product is actually free from animal testing. Products bearing the Leaping Bunny mark are certified ‘cruelty free’ under the internationally-recognised Humane Cosmetics or Humane Household Products Standards.

What is animal testing?

Hundreds of thousands of animals are suffering for products such as lipstick or even everyday product such as shampoo, toothpaste and many more. The animals are often poisoned, blinded and then killed every year in archaic product tests for cosmetics, personal-care products, household cleaning products, and more shockingly, fruit juices. To date, more than 1,300 companies have banned all animal tests and some corporations are still being ignorant and continues to force substances into animals’ stomachs and drip chemicals into rabbits’ eyes. Many people are not aware that such torturing tests are not required by law and not many are aware that these tests often produce inaccurate or misleading results (even if a product has blinded an animal, it can still be marketed to you).

Scientists have developed sophisticated product tests in the 1920s that are faster, cheaper, and far more accurate than blinding and poisoning tests. It is called as in vitro tests whereas artificial human “skin” and “eyes” that mimic the body’s natural properties and a number of virtual organs serve as accurate models of human body parts.

PETA have an interactive search page (http://features.peta.org/cruelty-free-company-search/index.aspx) on which companies are cruelty-free company, and which is not, whereas you can do searches for Companies That Do Not Test on Animals, Cruelty-Free Companies by Product Type, Cruelty-Free Product Availability by Country, Companies That Do Test on Animals and Companies Working for Regulatory Change. I’ve decided not to list the companies out because I find two different list on this matter. PETA’s list differ from Paula’s Choice list as Paula’s Choice uses National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS), website (http://www.navs.org/) as the main resource for their list. So if you want to go through that list, you can visit http://www.paulaschoice.com/beautypedia-product-reviews/animal-testing/. The Leaping Bunny on the other hand provide an interactive search page as well (http://www.gocrueltyfree.org/search?#) and it’s categorized by cosmetic / personal care and household products. Best of all it’s categorized by country although I do find some brands under Malaysia is not available directly in Malaysia.

What you can do to help?

There’s a saying – when the demand stop, the supply will. I find it easier for me to stop buying brands / products that I’m thinking to try. What if it’s something that I’m already using for years and I’m not aware that it’s not cruelty-free? In this situation, you have two choices. Either to continue using or to search for other alternative products. Just like the situation I encounter with Rimmel. I was about to order the Stay Matte Pressed Powder online to only find that they do testing on animals. As I haven’t “start” with the brand / product, it is easier for me to just say NO and move on. I dare not say I’m completely 100% on cruelty-free products as I wasn’t aware which is which before this but I will try my best to go cruelty-free, although it might be tough since most of the brands / products do test on animals 🙁

Bunny Free App

PETA came up with an app for both iOS and Android phone user whereas users can download the app to their phone and search for companies by name and the app will tell you whether or not they test on animals. Please visit http://www.peta.org/interactive/bunny-free-app/ for more info 🙂

Tell me, what’s your take on cruelty-free? Are you willing to stop completely or choose to gradually change what you use?