4/22/2008 ETA: Since I posted this, Burt’s Bees has pledged to only buy cruelty-free ingredients from its suppliers, and is now listed on the CCIC’s list of cruelty-free companies, and my list as well.   So I no longer think Burt’s Bees sucks at all.  In fact, I think Burt’s Bees is wonderful for promoting the health and well-being of numerous lab rats and rabbits.  Go Burt’s Bees!

 I am so appalled that Burt’s Bee is being acquired by Clorox (Thanks for bringing this up Kathy!).

Unfortunately Burt’s Bees has annoyed me for a long time now. Its products are not 100%-animal-testing-free and never have been. This is despite the fact that Burt’s Bees seems like the kind of company that ought to prioritize making sure its products are 100%-animal-testing-free. It’s all natural! It’s pro-environment! It’s got cute hippie packaging! But no.

By “not 100%-animal-testing-free” I mean that Burt’s Bees, while it does not commission or perform animal tests itself, does not require its suppliers to be animal-testing-free as well. This means all the oils, minerals, extracts, etc., that Burt’s Bees buys to make its cute little products are probably tested on animals. At any rate, they are not guaranteed animal-testing-free.

So I haven’t been buying Burt’s Bees products for a while now because of Burt’s Bees lack of 100% commitment to ending animal testing. I have instead been buying products from companies that not only don’t fund giant pain-filled laboratories but also make sure to only buy ingredients from suppliers that don’t fund giant pain-filled laboratories. (If you’re new to this blog – that is what the whole point of this blog is – to document my trying out products that are 100%-animal-testing-free.)

There really is no excuse for Burt’s Bees not making sure its ingredients are 100%-animal-testing-free. It’s very easy to go 100%-animal-testing-free as a large cosmetics company – all 188 companies listed on the Coalition for Consumer Information in Cosmetic’s list have managed to do so, so it can’t be that hard.

Lying by Implication:

Many companies state that they do not test on animals but they actually put products on shelves that are not 100%-animal-testing-free. Some of these so-called cruelty-free companies are: Burt’s Bees, Revlon, Aveda, Avon, Bare Escentuals, Bath and Bodyworks, BeneFit, Bonne Bell, Clarins, Conair, Crabtree & Evelyn, Dessert Essence, Donna Karan, Dr. Denese, Dr. Hauschka, DuWop, Eco Lips, Estee Lauder, Got2B, Jack Black, Jessicurl, John Masters Organics, Kate Spade Beauty, Liz Claiborne Cosmetics, Mrs. Meyers, Origins, Paula’s Choice, Paul Penders, Pharmacopia, Philosophy, Physicians Formula, Smashbox, Stila, Whole Foods Market 365 brand, Zia. To name a few.

These companies aren’t lying – but they are misleading you. When you read that the company does not perform animal tests, your mind naturally jumps to the idea that the product is 100%-animal-testing-free. But that isn’t true – the company could have outsourced the animal testing to a different institution, or bought ingredients that were tested on animals and claimed to have no control over those ingredients.

Lie by implication these companies make: “We do not test on animals.”
What this really means: “We don’t run any animal tests ourselves, because those would require huge, expensive laboratories. 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.”

The only way you can be sure a company is 100% cruelty-free: the company states that it does not perform or commission any animal testing on its products, and it asks its suppliers to only supply it with 100%-animal-testing-free initial ingredients as well. (Or the company is on the CCIC’s master list of cruelty-free companies — companies on that list have pledged to not commission animal tests, and to ask their suppliers to pledge to supply them with ingredients that have been tested on animals. That’s why it’s such a great list.)

(Don’t get me wrong — I actually think it’s great that most of these companies – Revlon, Dr. Hauschka, Estee Lauder, etc – do not have laboratories that torture rabbits and rats. I really, really do. I am thrilled that they’ve made this commitment to not test on animals. And I think if you want to choose between any of these companies and hideously-evil-companies like L’Oreal that do fund evil laboratory studies, please pick one of these relatively better companies. They are so much better – I’d take (evil-by-neglect) Philosophy over (very evil) L’Oreal any day. But, what really bugs me about these evil-by-neglect companies is that they go out of their way to imply that their products are animal-testing-free when they aren’t. This confused me for years, and I resent it. I realize the companies do it so everyone becomes confused by what is and is not tested on animals and so they give up trying to tell what is and is not cruelty-free, and more products get sold, and the companies make more money, but . . . It. Really. Annoys. Me. And I do not condone that sort of behavior.)

That being said, I have always admired Burt’s Bees for not actively running laboratories that test products on animals, and I’m sad to see that it’s been bought by a company like Clorox that is out-and-out evil and does commission animal testing.

But the fact that Clorox tests on animals doesn’t appall me. What REALLY appalls me is that Burt’s Bees is not going to maintain its not-commissioning-animal-tests stance now that it has been bought by Clorox. It wouldn’t bother me too much if Clorox bought Burt’s Bees but agreed to uphold Burt’s Bees stance on not commissioning any animal tests. That would actually be a good thing — it would give Clorox money for not testing on animals, which would reward Clorox for being kind to animals — and might incentivize Clorox to eventually not test on animals. Here is a letter on the Burt’s Bees website basically saying that Burt’s Bees is going to be swallowed up by Clorox and has dropped its no-commissioning-animal-testing stance.

Burt’s Bees Letter to Our Loyal Customers

As you’ve probably heard by now, we at Burt’s Bees are entering an exciting new chapter in our lives as a result of the recent sale of the company to The Clorox Company. It’s a great opportunity to help us better deliver against our mission of making truly natural personal products available to everyone, everywhere. (My comment – so not testing on animals is not part of Burt’s Bees mission any more?)

This new journey gives us the energy and the resources to do even more. Not only will we be able to accelerate our growth, but this will also help us to grow the natural personal care category in general, furthering our commitment to The Greater Good.

You can keep counting on Burt’s Bees in the ways you always have. We will always stay steadfast behind our values and commitment to making the best natural personal care products with the most environmentally sensitive packaging and nature-safe manufacturing processes. And, above all, we’ll continue on with our social mission to make people’s lives better every day, naturally. (My comment – so environmentally safe packaging is important to Burt’s Bees values but kindness to animals is not?)

It’s your desire to improve your well-being and the world around you that has given us the support to take this next step. We thank you and ask for your continued support so we can keep the Burt’s Bees hive buzzing.

Do you see that? Not one mention of Burt’s Bees animal testing policy and how it will be affected by the Clorox buyout? I mean, at least the Body Shop and Tom’s of Maine have promised to keep their products animal-testing-free despite being bought by evil corporations — Burt’s Bees has instead gone straight to the dark side. The Body Shop and Tom’s of Maine are SO MUCH MORE animal-friendly than Burt’s Bees (they’ve both maintained their CCIC membership and 100%-animal-testing-free-commitment). At least if you buy Body Shop or Tom’s of Maine products you are actively encouraging L’Oreal and Colgate to stop testing on animals (which is a wonderful thing to do!). But if you buy Burt’s Bees products now you are doing absolutely nothing in the fight against animal testing, and you are actively contributing to animals being needlessly hurt (in my opinion). Shame on Burt’s Bees for letting that happen.

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