Put on a happy face
People who go veg because of concerns about how animals are treated often extend that compassion into other areas of their life. In addition to not eating animal products, vegans don’t wear animal products such as leather or wool. And many people, not just vegans, are opposed to animal testing for personal-care and household products, and want to avoid buying from companies that test on animals.
Fortunately, as awareness of these issues has grown, it has become easier to find information about companies’ policies. Unfortunately, as being “cruelty-free” has become a selling point, some companies may make misleading claims on their labels. As the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics, the group behind the “Leaping Bunny’ logo seen on some products, says: “Designation as ‘cruelty-free’ or ‘not tested on animals,’ or even the image of a bunny on a label may only refer to the finished product, when in fact, most animal testing occurs at the ingredient level. Furthermore, while a company may claim, ‘We do not test on animals,’ it could still contract other companies to do the testing.”
The coalition is a project of several national animal-protection groups, including the American Anti-Vivisection Society and the Humane Society of the U.S. Inclusion on its Compassionate Shopping Guide indicates that a company has made “a voluntary pledge that cosmetic, personal care, and/or household product companies make to clear animal testing from all stages of product development. The company’s ingredient suppliers make the same pledge and the result is a product guaranteed to be 100 percent free of new animal testing.” Because it covers ingredient suppliers as well as manufacturers, it is a most comprehensive standard.
But even if a company doesn’t test on animals, in some cases their products may still contain animal ingredients. So if that is a concern, look for additional information. Ingredient lists such as PETA’s “Animal Ingredients and Their Alternatives” can be helpful – but in some cases may be difficult to interpret without additional research. That’s because some ingredients such as collagen are clearly from animals, but others can come either from animal or plant sources or be produced synthetically. It may be most effective to look for products that indicate on the label that they are vegan, or state that they do not contain animal products.
