Hi Emily,

I’m very impressed with your listing and research. I respectfully disagree with your decision not to support companies who do not ascribe to independent organizations reviews, like Leaping Bunny, as I work for one of those companies. My employer makes products which are sold in over 25 countries, and so our standards are far ahead of those set forth by the Leaping Bunny Standard. My employer also works with the global scientific community at large to research and fund alternatives.

Thanks for the great information overall - education is so important.

Best,

The Leaping Bunny Isn’t Good Enough

Dear TLBIGE,

I LOVE being respectfully disagreed with — thank you for not being outraged and appalled. And thanks for complimenting my listing and research!  I think you make some very good points, and I’m SO PLEASED you’ve outed yourself as an employee of a company that isn’t Leaping Bunny approved — I’m impressed by your integrity! Your employer certainly is lucky to have you working for it.

However, while I fully respect your employer’s decision not to use the Leaping Bunny as a resource — hey, it’s not for everyone! I’m the first to admit that — I am a little confused by your argument — if the employer you work for has standards that are higher than the Leaping Bunny’s, why won’t it sign up with the Leaping Bunny? Is it really so difficult for your company to sign a statement saying it doesn’t test on animals, and have its suppliers sign similar statements, if it’s already going beyond that?  Especially if it’s a big international company — I would think it would have no trouble getting its suppliers to sign a form saying they don’t test on animals the way a small company might. It’s a little suspicious. Are you absolutely positive your employer both (1) doesn’t commission any animal testing, and (2) makes sure its suppliers never test on animals either?  Because I really doubt it.

And, uh, in what way would those standards be higher than the Leaping Bunny’s?  Does your employer not only require companies and their suppliers to promise not to test on animals, but monitor them via helicopter/undercover agents/etc.?  Make them promise to cut off their own arm if they do test on animals?  

And on the off chance it’s really true that your employer’s standards are really high and it could easily pass the Leaping Bunny requirements — why is your employer above signing up (for free) with an internationally-recognized organization that checks out various companies, makes sure they’re cruelty-free, and then centrally organizes that information in one place where it is hugely beneficial to people looking to buy cruelty-free products? I think most cruelty-freeists really don’t want to go to every website of every company they’re interested in buying products from and wade through the quagmire of cruelty-free language to find out if a company is cruelty-free or not — I think they want to find products on a list made by an organization that knows far more about animal testing than they ever will, so they can be assured the product they are buying is really 100%-cruelty-free. (Well, that’s what I want, anyway . . .)

Also, philosophically, don’t you think it’s better that companies signal their ethics to their customers by ascribing to so-called independent organizations reviews?  I think it’s a GREAT way for companies to show their customers that they are “good” companies.  Even better — it’s a free market/capitalist way of giving information to consumers — it’s efficient, it’s inexpensive, and all the incentives are in the right places.  The alternative is slow, expensive government bureaucracies that could easily be captured by the wrong special interests to monitor cruelty-free-ness.  Do you really want a government body reviewing your company?  I really, REALLY doubt it.

Anyway, thanks again for commenting about your views — I can totally see where you’re coming from and you present a very reasoned argument (you have no idea how much I enjoy that!).

Regards,

Categories : dear emily