So I’ve been reading up on paint that’s been tested on animals (thanks to Michael for bringing this to my attention!). Apparently, a lot of house paints have been tested on animals. I had absolutely no idea. For example, here’s the safety data for Behr white paint #1050 — it lists all the animal tests that were done on this paint alone. They are REALLY appalling.
Unfortunately, the Coalition for Consumer Information in Cosmetics, my usual go-to source for 100%-animal-testing-free cosmetics/household products, does not certify paint products. It just certifies cosmetics/household products. So, this makes finding 100%-animal-testing-free paints a little tricky. Basically it means that there are no paint companies that make their suppliers pledge to give them animal-testing-free ingredients. Even if I find a paint company that swears it never commissions tests on animals, this doesn’t mean its products are 100%-animal-testing-free. It means the finished products have not been tested on animals, but the initial ingredients that went into those paints may well have been sourced from companies that do test on animals. So this makes those paints about . . . 50%-animal-testing-free by my reckoning. But I’ll just have to live with that. 50%-animal-testing-free is a heck of a lot better than Behr-100%-cruelly-tested-on-animals paint.
So, here are the bunch of brands of paints that are 50%-animal-testing-free!:
Devine Color Paint (USA) (vegan)
Anna Sova paints (USA) (not vegan)
Ecos paints (UK) (vegan)
Ecopaints (mostly vegan paints) (UK)
Earthborn paints (mostly vegan paints) (UK)
BioPaints — some vegan paints, some not (NZ)
Amma Earth Paints (Australia)
AFM Safecoat (USA)
Pittsburgh Paints (USA)
(If you know of any other paint companies that don’t test on animals, please drop me a line and I’ll add them to this list. If you’ve tried any of these paints, could you please write a fully detailed review of that paint in a comment to this post? You know — how was dealing with the company, was the color selection good, did the paints appear to be high-quality, what did the paints look, smell, and feel like, were they overly expensive or a good value, did they last a long time or peel off the walls immediately, and, out of a possible five stars, how many stars would you give them? That sort of thing. I don’t intend to paint anything for at least another five years (or ever again, if I can help it), so I’m not going to write a product review of any of these in the near future, so I’d appreciate any information on these paints!)
Categories : against animal testing, cruelty free
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Raffaella
April 14th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Hi Emily,
I too didn’t know about this, I will investigate!!!!
But..as I told you about toys…nothing surprise me, not any more!
Thank you, once again!
P.S. Check your mail later on!
Regards, Raffaella
Tammy
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Gasp! Thanks for bringing this to light! How about the brand afm safecoat (afmsafecoat.com)? They try to eliminate any toxic ingredients from their paints and claim no animal testing. I looked at a couple MSDS, and the toxicity portion lists no toxic ingredients…??
Emily
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Dear Tammy,
I’m so glad you enjoyed my post. I shall have to check out afm safecoat — it sounds like an excellent addition to the list!
Regards,
Emily
Stinky
August 29th, 2008 at 2:56 am
While it is true that all of the chemicals listed in the MSDS are tested on animals, it is not fair to say that the paint itself is tested on animals.
The information contained on the Behr MSDS sheets reflects tests that were performed on the individual chemicals contained in the paint, not the paint itself, and not necessesarily at the request of Behr either.
ALL chemicals, including innocuos things like vitamins and “non toxic” chemicals are tested, or have been tested, on animals, at some point in time.
(Do a search for “Vitamin A MSDS”)
I am not defending anyone nor is this an endorsment of Behr paint.
I just wanted to shed some light on this and encourage people to dig a little deeper and understand the information presented to them before jumping to any rash conclusions.
(Yes, I am a Vegan)
Stinky
Emily
September 12th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Dear Stinky,
Thanks for writing in — not that I don’t disbelieve your points, but do you have any sources that support them? I don’t really know much about MSDS reports, so I’d love to learn more.
Also — I’m a little confused by your proposition that tests were performed on individual chemicals, not the paint itself, and that makes them okay. I don’t think that is true. Most animal testing isn’t actually performed on finished products — this is why “finished product not tested on animals” is such a lie by implication. Most companies just test initial ingredients on animals. Also, whether or not Behr ran the tests themselves is not an issue — if they commissioned the tests from a different laboratory, or just decided not to make sure their paint ingredients weren’t tested on animals, I hold Behr responsible for the animal testing of their products. I think of them as just outsourcing animal testing.
Also, whether or not vitamin A has an MSDS report is not an issue for me — it’s the company that produces a product that I want to know did or did not do animal testing. Most chemicals at one time were tested on animals. Every shampoo ingredient invented in the past fifty years. I don’t not use current shampoos that aren’t tested on animals because their ingredients were in the far distant past once tested on animals. I’d have to give up all of my toiletries. If Behr came out and said, look, this MSDS on our paint ingredients was done totally not at our behest, I’d be okay with them. I’m just not entirely convinced by your argument that Behr wasn’t involved in torturing rats for their paint in the first place. But if you have further arguments and sources to support your point, I’d love to change my mind!
Regards,
Katie
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Your link to Devine Color goes to another website. Here is the correct address. Thanks for including us in your article.
katie
Katie
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
http://devinecolor.com
Emily
October 24th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Hi Katie — you’re very welcome, and thanks for catching the bad link! I hope you receive some traffic from my site.
Regards,
Lee Ann
October 26th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I just checked out the Kilz website, and in their safety information it actually says “Eye - Rabbit…Skin - Rabbit…Inhalation - Rat…Inhalation - Mouse…INGESTION - Rat…INGESTION - Mouse”. I’m absolutely sick. They made the poor creatures drink the stuff. arggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh! I’ll never buy Kils again. I’m looking around for options now. Of course the best stuff is in Australia, about as far away from the Mid-Atlantic as you can get.
Emily
October 27th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Hi Lee Ann! That’s awful about Kilz — yuuuuuuuuck. Good for you for looking into other options! I’m thrilled
If you try any of the paints I’ve listed above or find another one somewhere else, please tell me how it goes!
Rob Lewis
April 6th, 2010 at 11:43 am
Hi Emily:
Thanks for your post about the cruelty in commercial paints. I’m a professional painter and have been trying to track information about animal testing in paints, with little success. I have learned that the “inhalation” test involves putting mice or rats into plastic tubes and pumping in paint vapors until they start to die. It’s horrific.
There are two paints you may want to check out. One is Old Fashioned Milk Paint, which makes a wall paint they call Safepaint. No petrochemicals are used in this product, only lime, milk protein, clay and pigment. There is also a clay paint made in Germany and imported by Bioshield. It should also be pretty clean and cruelty free, as I suspect Germany has better laws in that regard than we do.
Lastly, people can make their own paint pretty easily using hosehold ingredients. You can google homemade paint to find out how. Your readers are also welcome to contact me, and I’ll pass along what I know.
Thanks again.
Rob Lewis
Earth Craft Painting
Emily
April 9th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Hi Rob!
Thank you so much for your lovely comment — it’s great to hear of a painter that is interested in using cruelty-free paint! Aren’t those tests just awful?
I just looked at Old Fashioned Milk Paint and Bioshield — I couldn’t find anything on their websites that said they didn’t test on animals, unfortunately. Have you talked with them? Did they mention their cruelty-free stance? I’d love to know!
Wow — I had no idea people could make their own homemade paint — thanks for telling me about it! Also — your site is gorgeous! I’d hire you to paint my house ANY DAY.
Regards,
Emily
Isabel Bendfeldt
July 26th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Hi, it might be a little late for this response since the topic has more than two years old, but I found your post today looking in the web for cruelty-free paint and think I found one
— > Pittsburg Paints
http://www.ppgpittsburghpaints.com/our_products/index.htm
I send and email asking if they conducted any kind of animal testing, and they answered back REALLY fast:
Hi Isabel,
PPG does not do any product testing of any kind involving animals of any type. Any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
Jeffrey N. Davis
PPG Technical Service
Their customer service is quick and wonderful, my next paint purchase will be from Pittsburgh paints for SURE.
Emily
August 5th, 2010 at 9:42 am
Hi Isabel! Thanks for writing to Pittsburgh Paints! I’m so glad to hear they don’t do any product testing on animals. I’m sure that will be useful for people looking for humane paints.
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