Animal testing of a wide range of products and cosmetics intended for human consumption has long since been proven to be neither accurate nor necessary. Sadly though, it still exists, because of the greed of companies trying to sell their products in foreign markets and because of people’s apathy. Most people I know vehemently deny using animal-tested products, which would be great if it were credible. So, let me ask you- Do you use products which are tested on animals? Before you answer with certainty, let’s run through a typical morning routine, hmm?

You crawl out of bed and head to the bathroom to brush your teeth with a refreshing Colgate/Close-Up/Crest toothpaste? Oops, Animal Tested. A quick Gillette shave? Animal Tested. You hop under the shower and apply some wonderfully scented L’Oreal shampoo or if you’re a little more fancy, Trésemme or Kérastase? Animal Tested. Some Nivea moisturiser? Animal Tested. Put on your Acuvue contact lenses, apply some Guerlain make up and spray on the latest Armani perfume? Animal Tested, Animal Tested, Animal Tested. Meanwhile, your beautiful house is being mopped with Lysol, and your laundry is in the machine, being delicately washed with Surf Excel. Again, Animal Tested. You pop a sachet of Animal Tested Splenda in to your coffee and you jump in to your car, which smells nice and clean thanks to your Animal Tested AmbiPur car freshner.

The list, unfortunately, is very, very long.

China is one of the countries which insists on animal testing, so any company which chooses to sell its products there is guilty of testing them at some stage of manufacturing, on poor, innocent animals. Elsewhere, especially in the European Union and the UK, there is widespread recognition that animal testing has no merits and that there are newer, scientifically proven alternatives which provide more accurate results and are which are humane.

India did me very proud, when in 2014, it became the first South Asian country to ban animal testing as well as the import of cosmetics tested on animals. Why such products are still selling on every shop’s shelves is something I haven’t quite understood. Still, the regulation is in place and that’s progress.

For most of us, it’s easy to err and buy products which are animal tested, even if we don’t intend to, because most companies that conduct such testing lie about it, the reason being quite simple: if people knew the horrendous, torturous experiments on dogs (especially beagles), rabbits, pigs, mice and all kinds of other animals, that went in to the creation of many of these popular products, chances are they’d never buy them. A lot of these animals are bred for the purpose of experimentation. Their lives are spent in cages, they are known not by names but by serial numbers. They never see sunlight, never know the feeling of grass and sand beneath their feet. The lucky ones, once they have served their purpose, are rescued by organisations such as Beagle Freedom Project (whose extraordinary work will be the subject of a future post). The rest end their lives a little more miserably than they began them.

That’s why companies will write “Against Animal Testing”, put some random bunny rabbit logo or say they test only “when required by law” (read: ‘to sell to profitable markets even if that means we compromise on ethics). They’re all lies and even I, who am very conscious about using only cruelty-free products, have been duped, like when I was happily using Himalaya toothpastes or when I bought one of those OGX Argan shampoos that recently came in to the market.

However, there is plenty of good news for people who no longer want to be passive accomplices to the horrors of cruel testing practices. There is an abundance of information on how to recognize and avoid such brands.

These websites list companies which are and are not cruelty-free:

http://features.peta.org/cruelty-free-company-search/index.aspx

http://www.leapingbunny.org/guide/brands

Also, there are three credible logos which indicate that a product is certified as cruelty-free:

Source:www.crueltyfreekitty.com

But my favourite is Beagle Freedom Project’s Cruelty Cutter app, which you can download for free in seconds, on your iphone or android phone or windows phone. This easy-to-use app has helped me enormously to make ethical choices when I shop. It has a barcode scanner which immediately lets you know whether the product is animal tested or not!

http://cruelty-cutter.org/

There you go. Now you know. Both, about what a terrible thing animal testing is and how you can easily be a part of the global revolution against it, by making informed and caring choices. Let your beauty show from within. Go cruelty-free today.