Living Cruelty Free

The Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC) has made a list of really cruelty-free companies at www.leapingbunny.org. You may ask, why not just buy any product that says something about how it doesn’t test on animals on the label when you’re in the drugstore if you’re concerned about animal testing? Basically, it’s because a lot of products that are marked “final product not tested on animals” or “Company X does not test on animals” actually have been tested on animals. Those two phrases are lies by implication — those companies have tested the individual ingredients (but not the final product) on animals, or they have outsourced the animal testing to a different company.

Lie by implication 1: “Final product not tested on animals.”
What this really means: “We tested the ingredients on animals, and then we felt like confusing our customers by writing something about how we didn’t test the final product on animals.”

Lie by implication 2: “Brand X does not test on animals.”
What this really means: “We don’t run any animal tests ourselves, because those would require a huge, expensive laboratory. So we outsource the animal testing to a laboratory, and then claim we don’t actually run the tests ourselves, or we buy ingredients that have been tested on animals, but then claim we had no control over that.”

So you can only be sure a product is cruelty free if it says point-blank that the final product and the initial ingredients that went into it have not been tested on animals. Or, you can buy products from companies that have pledged to uphold the Humane Cosmetics Standard. In the U.S., the organization that certifies companies as upholding the Humane Cosmetics Standard is the Coalition for Consumer Information in Cosmetics (CCIC). All companies that are on the CCIC’s master list are guaranteed to provide you with 100%-animal-testing-free products. They 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 animal testing. The list of approved companies is available in the CCIC’s shopping guide. (By cruelty-free the CCIC means products that have not been tested on laboratory animals. These products may have animal ingredients in them. If you’re concerned about that, you should cross-reference these with Vegan Action’s List of truly vegan products.)

The exact wording of how the CCIC describes the pledge it requires companies to take if they want to be on the list is:

“It is a voluntary pledge that companies make not to test on animals during any stage of product development. The company’s ingredient suppliers make the same pledge and the result is a product guaranteed to be 100% free of new animal testing. Commitments are renewed on an annual basis. This program applies only to cosmetics, personal care, and household products.“

In case you were wondering, I love PETA, but the PETA shopping guide is not hardcore enough for me — it lists companies whose parent companies test on animals, or who are required by law to test on animals, and it has this weird fixed cut off date thing that I’ve never been able to remember for more than five minutes after I’ve read up about it, so it just doesn’t work for me. The CCIC pledge is much more straightforward and easy to remember, and it is international as well – the Humane Cosmetics Standard is upheld by GoCrueltyFree.org in the U.K, ChooseCrueltyFree.org.au in Australia, and the ECEAE in Europe.

Long Complete Lists:

The List of 100%-Cruelty-Free Companies — this is a list of all the companies that subscribe to the Humane Cosmetics Standard. Any products these companies sell are 100%-animal-testing-free.

The List of 50%-Cruelty-Free Companies — this is a list of companies that do not test their final products on animals, but they do not make sure their initial ingredients have not been tested on animals. Since a lot of animal testing can occur at the initial stages, I find this distressing. (I do not buy any of these products.)

The List of Cruel Companies That Test on Animals — this is a list of companies that do test on animals.

The List of Cruelty-Free Charities — This is a list of charities that do not use animal-testing. They have been given the Humane Charity Seal of Approval.

Short Abbreviated Lists:

The Abbreviated List of 100%-Cruelty-Free Companies — this list is the abbreviated list of cruelty-free companies whose products can be found in most health food stores, Whole Foods, and natural drugstores (and one at Target!). If you don’t have time to shop online, this is a nice list to take with you to the store. (This list is San Francisco bay area based — if you’re looking for products in a different region, please look at comments kind readers wrote listing cruelty-free companies in their city/state/country.)

The List of 100%-Cruelty-Free, Organic Companies — this is a list of CCIC-approved-cruelty-free companies that also claim their products are organic. (Just the American companies — I haven’t gone through and found organic companies from any cruelty-free companies outside the U.S.)The List of Cruelty-Free Pet Foods — This is not a CCIC list — it’s a PETA list — unfortunately, the CCIC does not have a list of cruelty-free pet food (probably because the CCIC limits itself to cosmetics), so I’ve had to instead find cruelty-free pet food on the PETA website, which has a very nice “caring consumer” shopping guide that includes a pet food section (by the way, thank you PETA! No one else has this sort of cruelty-free petfood list! It’s great!). The website states that PETA sends numerous pet food companies letters asking if they conduct laboratory tests on animals, and then puts the ones that respond stating that they do not test on the cruelty-free list. (More information about this is available here.) Unfortunately, most of these pet foods are difficult to find in local stores — “Newman’s Own” (an excellent product I highly recommend — it’s cruelty-free and organic) is the only one I’ve seen at mainstream pet stores such as Pet Food Express. (These pet foods have not been tested on animals — but a lot of them are not vegan, vegetarian, or free-range/cage-free/humane-conditions-for-animals involving.

The List of Cruelty-Free Senior Diet Dog Foods – This is a subset of the list of cruelty-free pet foods — it only lists cruelty free dog foods suitable for older dogs.

If you’d like to see all my reviews of cruelty-free products, please click here.