Are the Products You’re Using Really Cruelty Free?: Here’s How to Find Out: Look for the Leaping Bunny Logo With Stars

Look for this logo!

I was very glad to see this article. Really, the only truly cruelty free product is one that is produced with ingredients that were not tested on animals. As this article below points out, many products claim to be cruelty free because the FINDISHED product was not tested on animals but their ingredients were. Well, this is not cruelty free.

To make sure you are truly buying truly cruelty free products, look on the back for the logo you see at the top of this article - “the leaping bunny logo with stars”. To find out more about buying cruelty free see http://www.geari.org/cruelty-free-shopping-products.html

Article:

US animal rights group highlights labeling ambiguity

http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/news/
ng.asp?n=67477-api-animal-testing

By Simon Pitman

5/4/2006 - A campaign in the US has been launched by the Animal Protection Institute (API) to highlight unclear labeling relating to cosmetic and toiletry products that are claimed not to have been tested on animals.

The animal advocacy group says that testing of cosmetic and personal care products in the US is still widespread and that a significant number of consumers want to avoid buying products that have been in any way tested on animals.

Currently many companies in the US label their products ‘not tested on animals', but API says that those claims can be misleading. It says that this might refer to the product itself and not the ingredients, or else the company might outsource testing to another company that uses animals.

The API adds that this problem is further compounded by the fact that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows companies to use phrases such as ‘cruelty-free' or ‘not tested on animals' without restriction because no legal definition is applied to those terms.

On the back of this API is launching a campaign to highlight the ambiguities in labeling regulations, which is being supported by the Leaping Bunny program - claimed to be the only internationally recognized standard to guarantee products are free of animal testing.

"Compassionate consumers are a large, well-intentioned, economically powerful market, but they are being misled by cosmetics companies. Consumers wish to avoid animal testing when they shop. API's campaign will give them the tools to do so", said Michelle Thew, CEO of API.

Thew has spear-headed a similar campaign in Europe that ultimately led to a total ban on the testing of cosmetics products and ingredients on animals in the European Union. That ban is expected to be fully implemented in the next two to three years.

The Leaping Bunny program ensures that companies will not test their products or ingredients on animals and has so far been endorsed by Urban Decay, Hard Candy, The Body Shop, Kiss My Face and Jason Natural Cosmetics.