The reasons to go cruelty free are endless. Ranging from animal rights and the inefficiency of animal testing, to pushing forward technological developments and supporting smaller businesses. If you aren’t already fully convinced that going cruelty free is the right thing to do, you will be after you read this.
1. Animals don’t deserve this.
As you are reading this right now, over 100 million dogs, cats, mice, rats, rabbits and primates are living in sickening, foul conditions. They are crippled, burned and poisoned in experimental labs. They live in endless pain, fear and distress as they are ripped away from their families at birth and thrown into vile cages where they live their whole life in immense agony. These animals have no rights, no freedom and no ability to pursue a happy life. Bunnies and mice are most commonly used in the testing of makeup and skincare products, although dogs are routinely blinded and abused in the testing of shampoo and soap products as well. There is a variety of cruel methods used to test the toxicity of a product. Acute toxicity, for instance, is a test used to determine how dangerous it would be for a product to be swallowed. Animals are forced to swallow a lethal dose of a chemical, without any anesthetic, and they experience seizures, loss of motor functions and eventually an incredibly painful death. All of these animals are harmless and at the mercy of human scientists. They don’t deserve this. Too many people will read this and just go on about their day pretending like nothing is wrong. What you need to realize is that every time you buy from a company that funds animal testing, your money is going directly to this abusive practice. Every purchase you make from a company that tests on animals is a vote to continue this abuse. It has to stop. It’s completely unacceptable.
2. Animal testing is ineffective and wasteful.
Over 90% of all tests that animals pass have demonstrated to still be harmful for humans. That means that millions of animals are abused, tortured and murdered for nothing. Their deaths don’t mean a thing in terms of scientific research. It’s not a surprising statistic considering that anyone with common sense knows that the body of a bunny is vastly different than a human body. The use of animals for testing cosmetics products and human medications almost always fails. It’s an immensely wasteful and outdated practice that can be easily replaced with many technological revolutions we have had in the 21st century. A variety of cell based tests and tissue models exist that are able to assess the safety of drugs, chemicals and cosmetics products without involving animals. Read our ‘animal testing overview’ page for more information on viable alternatives to animal testing that are being used in Europe.
3. Tax payer money goes towards animal testing.
Based on the 2014 budget of the National Institute of Health (NIH), over $12 billion of taxpayer money is used on animal experiments annually. Where could these $12 dollars go instead you ask? Helping underfunded public schools, providing food and shelter to the homeless, lowering the costs of public universities, funding the development of new technology to replace animal testing, assisting struggling hospitals and senior homes, etc. In 2014, over half a million U.S. dollars were spent on research at University of Utah which consisted of inducing heart attacks in dogs. Over $300,000 was spent on injecting hamsters with steroids and forcing them to kill each other at Northeastern University. These numbers only keep growing over the years and will keep growing until animal testing is banned in the United States.
4. Dogs are routinely blinded in shampoo testing.
Over 75,000 dogs are tortured in U.S. laboratories every year. They undergo invasive, excruciating and lethal experiments. When a shampoo is being tested to see it’s potential effects on a human eye, chemicals are vigorously rubbed into a dog’s eye or injected with a needle. As a result, dogs (usually beagles) become blind, experience bleeding or could even die. In a violent experiment at the University of Pennsylvania, puppies were bred to have a degenerative eye disease that culminates in blindness. During the study, 3-week-old beagles had their eyes cut out and were killed. Beagles are most often used in cosmetics testing because they are considered to be the most trustworthy dogs. They trust humans the most and their loyalty and trust is exploited and abused. Their small size makes them easy to chain down to an operating table and easy to manipulate. Also, some genius decided that choosing only one dog breed to abuse/test on somehow makes it more ethical. To give you a perspective on what these beagles go through, imagine being confined to a minuscule cage that barely fits all of your limbs. Imagine being kept inside of this entrapment for months at a time without exposure to sunlight, fresh air, or the feeling of being able to move around. Just laying in one tiny space awaiting your death. Human rapists, murderers and other criminals get the royal treatment compared to the living conditions of these innocent, harmless, terrified dogs. With all the toxins and chemicals constantly being injected into them, many beagles go crazy and suffer from severe distress up until their death. If this doesn’t make you ashamed for humanity and the sickening ignorance of our society, I don’t know what will.
5. Over 1,000 brands are cruelty free.
There is a countless number of cosmetics brands that are cruelty free. Our database features several hundred of them but you can find even more on the Leaping Bunny list, Choose Cruelty Free database or the PETA Beauty Without Bunnies directory. At the end of the day, why would you support an unethical brand that pays for the suffering of animals when you could be buying products that are equally as good from a brand that doesn’t? In the grand scheme of things, the absolute majority of brands do not test on animals. It’s the top 10% of the most popular and most profitable companies that do. Going cruelty free is a tiny sacrifice and it absolutely doesn’t limit you from buying good makeup, skincare and personal care products.
6. Europe has already banned animal testing.
In Europe, the ban on testing any products or product ingredients on animals has been in effect since March of 2009. This ban further applies to the marketing of products that have been tested on animals. This ban has demonstrated that it’s possible for cosmetics companies to keep growing, evolving and succeeding without harming animals in the production of their products. Tonio Borg, the E.U. commissioner for health and consumer policy, has said in a statement that this ban exhibits the high European standards when it comes to animal welfare. If it’s been done in Europe, the United States can do it too!
7. The environment is suffering.
The facilities that conduct animal testing experiments are responsible for a large amount of environmental waste. Once they are done conducting an experiment, they discard the bodies of the animals they have murdered. Animal decomposition causes environmental harm, not to mention the time and money wasted on the extensive process of transporting and disposing of the bodies. According to the National Institutes of Health, waste from their animal testing facilities was approximately 1.5 million pounds between the years of 2011 and 2013. Furthermore, a lot of food is necessary to feed the millions of animals that are being used for testing and agricultural processes and the production of this food in itself is harmful to the environment in countless ways. One could argue that if these animals were living in loving homes rather than abusive laboratories, they would be causing even more environmental harm but the truth is that they wouldn’t even exist. Laboratories breed beagles (and other animals) specifically for testing purposes because using homeless dogs from the streets is too risky and unreliable for scientific research.
8. Animal testing is a dangerous practice.
Vioxx, a drug that was distributed in 2004 with the purpose of treating arthritis, was found to be safe when tested in monkeys (and five other animal species). It has since then caused over 320,000 heart attacks and strokes as well as over 140,000 deaths worldwide. Needless to say, it was pulled from the market by the manufacturer. Additionally, only one third of substances known to cause cancer in humans have been shown to cause cancer in animals. There is a huge difference between animals and people. For instance, if a skincare product doesn’t have any harmful effects on the skin of a bunny, it could still be toxic and harmful to the skin of a human being. Thousands of ingredients have already been proven to be safe for humans to apply to their skin, so rather than testing new chemicals on animals, it would make much more sense to use human skin tissue models to test the combinations of various ingredients that already have a long history of being reliable and effective to treat various skin conditions.
9. Supporting smaller businesses helps the economy.
The majority of companies that test on animals are wealthy, large giants in the cosmetics industry like L’Oreal and Estee Lauder. Refusing to support those companies gives you an opportunity to support smaller, independent and more ethical businesses. Smaller businesses quite simply can’t afford animal testing, so they are much more likely to condone the practice and advertise themselves as a cruelty free company. Not only does purchasing from smaller businesses help the American economy, but it also encourages you to branch out and try new things. Whether it’s local businesses or other national companies that stand up against animal abuse, there are many alternatives out there available for conscious consumers.
10. We need to do better, people.
All financial and environmental reasons aside, there is no way to justify harming an innocent animal for personal gain when we have readily available alternatives at our disposal. Everything from hand soap, shampoo and deodorant to foundation, moisturizer and laundry detergent could be tested on animals and you aren’t even realizing that you are contributing your money towards abusing our furry friends. This makes you not only a witness, but an accomplice to this inhumane practice. If you wouldn’t let L’Oreal inject chemicals into your dog’s eyes, then why is it okay for you to be giving your money to a company that does just that to another innocent dog? Animal welfare is so much more important that what makeup you’ll be putting on today. Comparing the immense pain that animals experience during testing to the pleasure you experience when putting on a MAC lipstick is just absurd. When you choose to be a conscious consumer, you are choosing to be a part of the solution rather than the problem. Reading this article is a big step in the right direction because when you know better, you do better.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! What other reasons can you think of to go cruelty free? How has your cruelty free journey been going?
Love your page and love that you put the true !
Thank you so much!! There’s still so much progress to be made and so many consumers who are unaware of animal testing. I do my best to help bring attention to this issue and support ethical companies.
They farm dogs for food in Korea. So indirectly no k-beauty is cruelty free 😭
Love this post and your website! Question though- I know you are cruelty free but is everything on your page vegan too?
Hey Jane! Thanks for visiting my website. A lot of the products I feature on the shopping guides are vegan in addition to being cruelty free but not all of them. As for the brand directory, there’s an option on the menu to select “100% vegan” beauty brands. Hope that helps!
What a great read! I am trying to make the switch to cruelty free products.