What makes cruelty free the best choice?

What makes cruelty free the best choice?

It’s only natural that most people don’t want to talk about uncomfortable subjects such as animal cruelty.

We can’t change that TV channel fast enough when those Sarah McLachlan commercials come on. And it is not because we don’t care, but it is just too uncomfortable to watch or discuss.

The fact that humans can deliberately harm or abuse an animal is difficult to comprehend.

But we are slowly making strides to protect them.

In the US we have measures such as the Animal Welfare Act to protect animals from cruelty. It is a felony to kill animals such as a dog or cat in all 50 states. Unfortunately however, the AWA does NOT prohibit animals to be used for research purposes. It only governs the standard of animal care and how they are treated while at that research facility.

According to Peta (www.peta.org): “Each year, more than 100 million animals—including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds—are killed in U.S. laboratories for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing”.

Fortunately there is a global movement to end animal testing on products. Many organizations are lobbying their country’s governments to end animal cruelty and hopefully - ending product testing on animals all together.

How do you know if a product is cruelty free? Look for the Bunny labels.

Three of the most influential animal welfare groups will offer certifications for businesses to use their logos on products as long as it is proven that animals have not been harmed when making or testing such products.

Here are the 3 most recognizable logos. You can find more information as well as a really good comparison chart of what each of the logos mean at:

https://ethicalelephant.com/cruelty-free-bunny-logos/

What makes cruelty free the best choice?

The basic and most obvious reason is that it is downright unethical to be cruel to animals!

If compassion is not enough to stop science, the Animal-Free Safety Collaboration Assessment (AFSACollaboration.org) gives some other reasons to choose cruelty-free.

1) It is time consuming and expensive to do testing using animal subjects.

2) Animals are biologically different than humans. Test results from an animal will not have the exact same results for a human. Tests need to be more human-relevant.

3) High exposures to chemicals in animals give misleading results.

4) Legal incentives. It is no longer legal in 40 countries to do animal testing. That is good news but there is still a long way to go.

You can read more about the new movement towards this type of product testing at:

https://www.afsacollaboration.org/why-animal-free-faq/#animal_testing

Product testing still has to be done for safety reasons so what are some alternatives?

The missions and goals of such animal welfare organizations as mentioned above, as well as those like NAVS (navs.org), is that you CAN advance science without harming animals.

Here are some alternatives that they are advocating that do not use live animals:

a) In Vitro Testing – using cell cultures

b) Ex Vitro Testing – isolating tissues and organs

c) Silico Method – Computer or Mathematical modeling

What are some global impacts of being cruelty-free?

Cruelty Free International.org has seen many of their passionate initiatives become successful. Some are:

1) Campaigning the European Union to ban cosmetic testing on animals

2) Helped lobby for trade restrictions on non-human primates such as monkeys.

3) Undercover investigations of laboratories that exposed inhumane treatment of mice.

You can see all of their achievements here but this is just an example of the one organization doing its part to eliminate animal cruelty on a global level. Very encouraging!

https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/who-we-are/about-cruelty-free-international/our-achievements

Remember that you do have choices when you shop. Look for the bunny labels, especially on cosmetics and other health and beauty products.

Here at Happy Planet Collective it is important that the products that we sell are cruelty free.  Beauty Without Cruelty is one of popular brands that will make you look good while making the right choice.

Feel free to check them out on our site and thank you for helping be the voice for animal welfare!

https://happyplanetcollective.com/Cruelty-Free/skin-care

Just like you, we make Mother Earth our Number #1 priority!