What is animal testing?
Everyone melts down at the sight of fluffy rabbits, ideally jumping freely at their natural environment. However, it is well-known, that these innocent animals, altogether with rodents such as mice, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters and gerbils are being used by all kind of industries to test their products before releasing them to the market. It has been estimated by "Human Society" that registration of a single pesticide requires more than 50 experiments on as many as 12,000 animals.
Unfortunately, animal testing has been widely spread in the cosmetic industry as well. It is justified as being mandatory in order to substantiate the safety of ingredients used as well as the final product prior to marketing. Cosmetic formulators are the people responsible for conducting animal testing, applying cosmetic formulas and ingredients. As a result from the tests, great pain and suffering is caused to the animals including blindness, swollen eyes, sore bleeding skin, internal bleeding and organ damage, birth defects, convulsions and death.
Recently, testing on animals for cosmetics and household products was banned in EU, Israel and India. Such ban is still not a reality in the U.S., but a number of organizations are working hard to make it so. Some of them are listed bellow:
- Cruelty Free International is an organization supporting animals' rights. It aims to stop violence against animals used in testing for various industries, including cosmetics. Furthermore, the organization's policy is directed towards decisionmakers to approve non animals testing methods instead of animal testing.
- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)'s mission is to stop animals' suffering by banning animals testing in various industries, including cosmetics.
- Similar to the previous two organizations, Human Society International protects all kinds of animals - animals in laboratories, farm animals, companion animals, and wildlife. You can join their campaign here and help them fight animal cruelty in cosmetics.
- Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC) was made as a response to ambiguity of defining cruelty free products and the absence of uniform bunny logo applied to them. It consists of eight nationl animal protection groups.The initiative sets standard and internationally recognized Leaping Bunny Logo.
Why Animal Testing Needs To Stop
Because it is cruel and evil. Do we really need another reason?
We, from SULA NYC, condemn animal testing as an inhumane act and firmly declare that we are a cruelty free company, using 100% organic and natural ingredients. Furthermore. we highly respect public opinion and consumers' power which is more and more oriented towards natural products, obtained by non-animal tests. Finally...
...We are proud to be in the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)'s list of cruelty free and vegan companies. This means that "we and our suppliers do not perform, commission, or pay for any tests on animals for ingredients, formulations or finished products and that we pledge not to do so in the future".
We are also on LeapingBunny’s shopping animal cruelty free list.
We vow to present accurate data about the organic nature of our products because we do not want to jeopardize the image of the company in front of our customers who are against animal testing. Being accredited by PETA and Leaping Bunny, we show their logo’s on our packaging and website. As a US based company, SULA NYC is concerned about the US legislation regarding cosmetics and animal testing. We would like to encourage you to support the Humane Cosmetics Act as well as the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics initiated by US Senator Dianne Feinstein.
There Are Alternatives
We feel that it is important to point out that alternatives to animal testing are available right now! Banning tests on animals will not lower the level of safety of cosmetic products. If the non-animal tests become widely accepted and used, this will not result into a decay in cosmetics progress. With the innovations in science, alternative methods have been developed and can replace the old animal testing methods. Developing of alternative methods will increase not only the quality but also the humaneness of our science.
Usually, non-animal methods are not understood because of conservative problems. Regulators, governments and even cosmetic formulators are used to the traditional animal testing. They are familiar with them. This should be changed in the future when additional bureaucratic and enforcement obstacles to the non-animal testing methods are overcome.
For instance, instead of testing a chemical by applying it to the cornea of live rabbits, researchers could use cornea-like 3D tissue structures produced from human cells. In another example, skin irritation tests can be performed on human skin cultures – grown and purchased specifically for this purpose. Not only that will save the need for an innocent animal to suffer, but in fact, it will also allow to more accurately measure humans' reaction to a product.
Using All Natural Ingredients
And of course, the best solution would be to simply use only organic ingredients. Like we do. We offer a variety of cosmetic products for body and face and all of them come from Nature. Our 100% organic products do not require any testing on animals. At the same time, our skin and hair care products guarantee superb nourishment and hydration, and have moisturizing, conditioning, and anti-aging properties proven in time. Help support the fight against animal testing and help for a cruelty-free world! Thank you!