ABSTRACT: Wearing make-up, using lotions, shampoos and other beauty products shouldn't have the stigma of having been tested on animals which causes their suffering
CONTENT: (©Nov 11, 2008~Ciao--originally published on Ciao under my pen-name of pyewacket)
There's hardly a person on this planet that doesn't use some kind of "cosmetic" product per se and this goes for both men and women and by cosmetics, one could include not only make-up products, but moisturizers, body lotions, shampoos and so forth. But what price is being paid by using these products?
Anyone who knows me fairly well, knows that I'm one of those animal rights activists, and no while not a fanatical extremist, I'm very much aware of what is going on in the world as far as mankind's abuse of using and testing products we humans use in the cosmetic industry. While I had been mildly aware of what was going on, it wasn't until I got my own computer and was able to read about the true horrors that go on in the testing of animals for any kind, not just cosmetic, products.
The cosmetic industry is one of those billion dollar industries. To supposedly make any kind of product that is used by humans animals are needlessly tortured to test if there are allergic reactions or toxicity. Most often, animals, such as rabbits and mice are in effect given far greater amounts of the product than the average human will ever use or need. For instance, to test if a product can be an irritant to the eyes, such as hair care products, make-up liquid foundations, shampoos, moisturizers, you name, the product is injected into the eyes of the rabbits or mice and as you can guess, the animals suffer horrifically and are often blinded. Why? How can ANY product that is designated for human use be fairly tested on animals in the first place, when their physiological and biological systems are so vastly different from ours? Is it really all that necessary to test on animals? My answer is a firm no, and many cosmetic companies are joining on the band wagon and are now free of animal testing, yet sadly not enough.
Since almost all of us use some kind of product that is in the cosmetic category, wouldn't one's conscious feel better if they knew they were using a product that wasn't tested on animals? Why should animals suffer for our vanities?
I was able to find two great resources about this very issue, and by doing a Google search, one can find PDF files, one entitled, "Companies That Don't Test On Animals" and another "Companies That Do Test On Animals". Sadly, the cosmetic companies that still do test on animals far outweighs the ones that don't, but if one decides to become a conscientious consumer and buy only products from companies that don't test on animals you'll be saving the lives of countless animals that are suffering from our own purposes.
I give a very brief and short listing of companies that DON'T test on animals and they are as follows:
ABBA Pure & Natural Hair Care
Abercrombie & Fitch
Almay
Aveda
Avon
Bath and Body Works
Burt's Bees
Conair
Estee Lauder
Giovanni Cosmetics
Hello Kitty
Mary Kay
Revlon
Tom's of Maine
As you'll notice, many of the top named and well known cosmetic companies do not test on animals at all. Also, another benefit of choosing a cosmetic product not tested on animals, is that most often, the ingredients are usually more natural, that is one doesn't have to be a chemist to understand the ingredients that are used. As I've mentioned, one can do a Google search for the PDF file that contains the names of all the products in the cosmetic industry not tested on animals.
It's sad to say the listing of cosmetic type companies that do still test on animals is even larger since these companies often make a vast variety of cosmetic type products from:
Chesebrough-Ponds
Clairol
Coty
Cover Girl
L'Oreal
Noxell
Oil of Olay
Sally Hansen
Suave
Just think of how many cosmetic type products are made by Clairol or L'Oreal alone.
No I'm not against using any cosmetic type product, but I had decided long time ago, to make an effort to switch to products that I know aren't needlessly tested on animals. If you love animals as much as I do, next time you reach for that liquid make-up foundation, eye shadow or eye liner, shampoo, lipstick, or moisturizer ask yourself, did an animal suffer just because I wanted to look "nice"?
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