A Cruelty-Free Year in Review

March 31st, 2008

It’s been about a year since I started this blog, and I can’t believe it, but I’ve written 145 posts. Shocking, no? And I’ve had a great time doing it, and made certain of my commitment to buying products that haven’t been tested on animals. It’s been great to have this whole experience written up online — I’ve learned so much about nonanimal-using toxicological testing, humane farming, pet food, large corporations that fund animal testing, the European ban on animal testing, etc.

I mean, if it weren’t for this blog I’m sure I never would have learned anything about any of those topics. Keeping the blog made me think about those issues, research them, and write up blog posts about them. It’s amazing how all that stemmed from writing down the types of lip gloss I buy.

It’s also made me realize what a good cause it’s been for me to get on board with. I think everyone probably has a cause they can care passionately about, and for me it’s animal testing. I really believe that any country with a decent infrastructure and noncorrupt government should be able to pass laws to encourage a shift away from animal testing in medicine, and a ban on animal testing for cosmetic purposes. Wouldn’t any citizenry of any country support that sort of thing? I certainly hope so.

Over the course of the past year I have replaced most of my household products with cruelty-free ones (though I’m still not there yet! Actually I don’t think I’ll ever run out of Bedhead After Party smoothing creme. Or Goo Gone. And I know there are very nice cruelty-free alternatives for both of those). I am glad to think that my money is supporting people who do not engage in animal cruelty, and I do feel like I’m donating to an animal welfare charity just by buying cruelty-free toothpaste. I’ve really enjoyed all the new products I’ve tried — even the ones that haven’t worked out have been interesting. So overall, the time and effort I’ve put into finding these products has been well worth it to me. (And I think it would be psychologically beneficial for anyone who wants to do that sort of thing! Really! You’ll enjoy it.)

I think I’ve also come to believe that cruelty-freeism is a spectrum. You can pick where you want to be on that spectrum. You can never be completely cruelty-free — it’s about finding the place that’s right for you. Don’t give up on being cruelty-free because you can’t promise to be cruelty-free 100% of the time (no one has that amount of time to research everything, I swear. Well, except for me :)). Heck, do you decide to give up being environmentally-friendly because you know you could never live in a yurt in the woods? No. You do the environmentally friendly stuff that’s easy for you — you buy greener toilet paper and paper towels, start recycling more, and stop being wasteful of plastic bags. Similarly, if you’re not obsessed with cruelty-free stuff the way I am, don’t knock yourself out making sure everything you buy is 100%-cruelty-free. Try, occasionally to buy CCIC-approved brands. Work them into your routine. If you see them at Whole Foods, go over and look at them, and see if any of them appeal to you. If you can’t find a CCIC-approved brand for some product you really need, don’t sweat it. Go buy the cruel version and drop me a line — I’ll happily spend days trying to find out if there are any CCIC-approved products that would fulfill your requirements. Do you have any idea how much time I spend trying to figure out which CCIC-approved brands were organic? It took hours. Luckily, I enjoyed it.)

A Cruelty-Free Year in Review

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Erin

Emily

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Emily

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