Why I’ve Started this Blog

March 14th, 2007

My resolution this year is to buy only cruelty-free products that have not been tested on animals. I realized a few months ago that countless rats and rabbits suffer for or are killed to make sure shampoos/soaps/etc., won’t cause people with sensitive skin to have mild rashes, and since I don’t have sensitive skin, and I know any products with ingredients that might remotely be unsafe have already been tested (on numerous animals) by pharmaceutical companies and approved of by the FDA, this really bothers me. So far this has been surprisingly difficult. I have a new respect for people who only buy organic products, or fair trade products, etc., because I never realized how much time and effort it takes. So I’ve started this blog to chronicle my search for cruelty-free personal and household products. I hope that at the end of this year I can look back at this blog and see all the progress I’ve made.

The most difficult part of finding cruelty-free products is that there are a lot of products that are marked “final product not tested on animals” or “Company X does not test on animals” that actually have been tested on animals. Basically, the companies that use those phrases are lying by implication — they have tested the individual ingredients (but not the final product) on animals, or they have outsourced the animal testing to a different company. So you can only be sure a product is cruelty free if it says point-blank that the final product and the initial ingredients have not been tested on animals. The Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics has made a list of them at www.leapingbunny.org. All companies on the CCIC’s list have made a voluntary pledge to not test any of their ingredients or final products on animals, and they’ve made sure their suppliers have also made the same pledge — thus, their products are guaranteed to be 100% free of new animal testing. The list of approved companies is available in their shopping guide, and any products I mention in this blog will be listed in their shopping guide. (The PETA guide is not hardcore enough for me.)

I hope by the end of this year I’ll have replaced all my old household products with cruelty-free ones. So far, I’ve really enjoyed knowing that all the products I’ve bought have involved no animal suffering, and my money is supporting people who do not engage in animal cruelty. Also, I feel like I’m donating to an animal welfare charity just by buying cruelty-free toothpaste — the best way to “vote” in the US market is to use dollars. Surprisingly, most of the new products I’ve been trying have turned out to be good, high-quality products. I’ve enjoyed the dramatic improvement in all the stuff I buy. So it’s been a lot of time and effort finding and buying these products, but so far, it’s been well worth it to me.

Categories : against animal testing, cruelty free, me

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Nicole Brunelle

December 1st, 2007 at 10:39 pm

I am also transitioning to a cruelty free lifestyle, including vegetarianism, and I’m overwhelmed with how difficult it is. So this blog is definitely long overdue, as I’m sure I’m not alone. The vegetarian diet is difficult, as I work long hours and don’t have to time to prepare my meals, and I’m a bit weak and tired. I was never a big meat eater, but even then I was anemic, so I’m considering eating humanely raised meat, but don’t know what package labels to trust. Any suggestions? Are you by any chance a member of MUA?

Emily

December 3rd, 2007 at 6:18 pm

Hi Nicole!

Welcome to my blog and the cruelty-free lifestyle! That’s wonderful that you’re going vegetarian! It is really difficult, isn’t it?

Well, first off, if you’d like to try to transition to humanely-raised-meats and then transition to full vegetarianism (which is a great idea, by the way! I did that myself, and I think there is a world of difference between promoting factory-farming animal abuse and promoting a caring environment for animals before they are slaughtered), there are two very good lists of humane meat and dairy products — the American Humane Association’s Free Farmed list:

http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pa_farm_animals_ff_producers

and the Humane Raised and Handled Certification list:

http://www.certifiedhumane.com/links.html#producers

And they have valid logos — the “American Humane Certified” logo and the “Certified Humane Raised & Handled” logo — so go to the meat section of the grocery store and check to see if anything in the cases has those logos, and if they do, buy them. If there’s nothing with one of those logos available in your area, the “free-range” label actually means something as well — it is definitely a step up from factory farming, so go ahead and buy it. I’d stay away from anything else — “natural,” “naturally nested,” “happy,” etc., mean nothing. (I suspect you’ll probably have better luck at natural/health food stores or upscale markets than Safeway/Luckys/etc., but I am not sure.)

However, I noticed that you stated that you don’t have time to prepare your meals, in which case I highly recommend Whole Foods — the prepared food there is fantastic, and every animal product at Whole Foods (in the prepared foods and the unprepared foods sections) was humanely raised, as you can see from the Whole Food standards (Thanks Pearl for the information on Whole Foods!):

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/meat-poultry/qs_programrequirements.html

So you can just go to Whole Foods and pick any meat product out, you’ll be fine.

I also highly recommend Thai food in your quest to become vegetarian — almost anything on a Thai (or Indian) menu can be made vegetarian — just ask for cooked vegetables or tofu instead of meat (Thai green curry over vegetables is my favorite). It’s great if you don’t have time to cook, and very filling, which I found very nice when I was switching to vegetarianism — a lot of vegetarian food didn’t taste very filling to me when I started out.

In regards to your anemia, I would highly recommend talking to a doctor about it and getting iron supplements (that’s if you don’t take any currently — you probably do!) — I have a friend who is anemic (surprisingly she is a carnivore — she’s just genetically predisposed to it) — and she has iron supplements and monitors her diet to make sure she’s getting enough iron.

I myself eat a lot of vegan foods, and try to make sure I eat enough iron-containing foods — the ones I like are almonds, oatmeal, beans, and leafy greens, so I’d recommend eating more of those if you don’t already. I actually really like leafy greens the most:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Greenckg.html

I eat Trader Joes organic mixed baby greens almost every day — I just toss them with olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, honey, and salt and that’s my iron for the day. (They make a nice side dish, especially when topped with almonds and dried cranberries.) (Back when I was eating more cheese and eggs, I would frequently top the mixed greens with some poached eggs or a lot of brie — it’s a nice quick dinner, and if I made sure to make a lot, it would be very filling.)

I did at one point check to make sure I was getting enough iron by using Fitday.com — I was hoping I ate at least 33mg of iron a day, which the Vegetarian Resource Group suggested:

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.htm

That was kind of fun, so you could think about doing that just to see how your iron consumption is doing (if you have time what with working long hours!).

Surprisingly enough, I am not an MUA member — I just promote it because I like the community-based reviews, I read them all the time, and it’s really helped me make a lot of product-buying decisions. Basically I think it’s great!

Um, I hope that helps, and if you need any more ideas for easy vegetarian dinners, or encouragement to keep up your cruelty-free lifestyle, please drop me a line! I’d be honored to help!

Nicole Brunelle

January 8th, 2008 at 2:20 am

Emily,

You are a gem! You should clone yourself so we have more of you!! Thank you for all the specific information, and my apologies for the delayed gratitude! I wish I had the time to be as proactive as yourself, because I would do exactly what you’ve done with this blog. I’m a member of the Animal Rights group in NYC, and I’ll be passing out anti vivisection pamphlets tomorrow on my lunch break..gut wrenching to see what these animals endure-I’m actually not looking forward to it because the images upset me so. I’m passionate about this issue, and I want to do more, but the realities can be demoralizing, as my experiences with dog rescue have taught me. Disheartening to see what people are capable of doing to animals that we bred specifically to depend on us, work for us, and love us unconditionally. They work for us, as war dogs, as search and rescue dogs, as guides for the blind, as therapy dogs and ask for nothing in return. If only people were more like dogs.. But I digress, your site is the most comprehensive I’ve seen and I refer to it constantly. Definitely gives me an acute awareness of how many products I use when I have to index each one for animal testing! I’ve I have a few ideas that I’d like to discuss with you- I’ll contact you later this week.

Emily

January 12th, 2008 at 2:21 am

I’m so pleased my advice was helpful to you! The Animal Rights group in NYC sounds WONDERFUL — good for you for handing out anti-vivisection pamphlets on your lunch breaks! I myself am completely in favor of that even though I can’t bring myself to look at those images too closely. They really are heartbreaking, aren’t they? (And you volunteer for dog rescue as well? Good for you! I love dogs.)

I’m so glad this site is useful to you as well! I look forward to hearing from you about your ideas, and really do feel free to drop me a line about your struggles with vegetarianism/buying cruelty-free products — I’ll try to remember to go check my email frequently!