It is fairly well known that eating meat has never settled well with me, even when i was very young and didn't know what a vegetarian was. I'm sure it was no surprise to anyone when I cut meat out of my diet nine years ago. Since then, i've also introduced a lot of milk substitutes into my diet and started eating eggs almost exclusively from my own chickens. In the past couple of years i've also started buying products (mostly beauty) that don't test on animals. I won't get into detail about animal testing and all it's horrors, but I will say that unnessary, cruel, and pointless tests are happening to animals in the United States every day. I know that it is easy to turn away and pretend that these things aren't happening or that your purchases don't affect the problem, but they are and they do. For more information on animal testing, take a look at the links at the bottom of this post.
Unfortunately, there are some gray lines when it comes to your shopping trip. Many brands buy ingredients for their cosmetics from other companies that test and then claim that their products are cruelty free. Check the label, if it says something along the lines of "this final product not tested on animals", it's ingredients probably were. Additionally, cosmetics companies seem to change their stance on testing often. L'Oreal, along with Mary Kay and Avon, are currently resuming testing on animals so that they can lawfully expand their sales to China. For the most accurate list of "safe" products, visit the Leaping Bunny Website. Although strict, you can trust that each company with their approval is okay to support. When i started to transition into animal friendly products I was happy to see that many of the things i already used were against testing!
The Humane Society of the United States
"Animal Testing" Wikipedia Page
Cosmetic Testing Facts
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Does anyone else buy cruetly free? What are some of your favorites? What are the products that you haven't found a good alternative for yet?
