I’m against animal testing on cosmetics completely, but do not exclude products from personal use or review (my job would be impossible otherwise) if they are from a brand that may use animal testing. If I put my hand on my heart, I would say that it is something I prefer not to think about; animal testing is so gruelling and gruesome that it is quite a hard thought to form. Head in the sand? Yes, a bit. And, I think I’m like most people when it comes to beauty products – I have a woolly recollection that somewhere back in the day some products might have been tested on animals, but so far in the past that it isn’t relevant now. I seem to have retained some bits of history of animal testing that has surfaced over the years, but I would be very hard pushed to give an accurate account of how this affects the cosmetics I use now.
Nonetheless, if you are a brand that has based their story (“We don’t test on animals; how could anyone?” says Urban Decay) on the fact that anti-animal testing is a key part of their reasoning, then to do such a strong about-turn is quite rightly making a lot of Urban Decay fans angry. At a guess, I would suggest that Urban Decay has a very different internal structure now than when it began. New top management, investors, money-markets and corporate profile will be very, very different. Urban Decay say that entering the Chinese market will give them a chance to change the Chinese animal testing policy.
In fact, if Urban Decay had done their research, they’d know that China is in the final stages of approving some non-animal testing methods for cosmetic ingredients (check PETA for this). If only they’d waited just a little bit longer then they’d never have had to issue their silly ‘we’re only trying to help’ press release. It’s bad timing, badly thought through and frankly, I don’t care if they’re trying to make a buck in the Asian market.. that’s fine. But don’t please rush in to suggest that entering the market is their way of educating a nation whose animal testing policies are about to change anyway. Sometimes, patience is the biggest beauty virtue.
PETA can take the full responsiblity for making changes. You know what they did? They awarded grants to scientists at the Institute for In Vitro Sciences to offer expertise to China in replacing animal tests with non-animal alternatives. And, it seems that China is acting quite swiftly on this with a non-animal sunlight toxicity test being accepted this summer.
See PETA HERE
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8 comments
I totally agree with you here, another part of the story which has a lot of people FUMING is that they are describing people who are complaining about the situation as Animal Rights Activists! Not as people who care, or are interested in the welfare of animals but activists.
Chalk another PRFail up for Urban Betray right there.
I agree with you. Like you, I’m not going to exclude brands because they may test on animals, and to be honest, I don’t even know which ones do. But I don’t buy Urban Decay’s crap about entering the Chinese market to help. B*llocks. They want to make money and in the end of the day it’s more important to them than not testing on animals. They don’t have to sell their products in China, nobody does. End of.
It can be really hard to avoid all companies/brands that conduct or benefit from animal testing. I just try to avoid the main offenders:
Avon
Beiersdorf
Colgate
Johnson & Johnson
L’Oreal
PZ Cussons
Procter & Gamble
Reckitt Benckiser
Unilever
These companies either conduct animal testing themselves or pay other people to do it for them.
http://www.uncaged.co.uk/index.html
Couldn’t agree with you more, another thing that stinks is how Urban Decay is handling the backlash. Like Big Fashionsita said, they have essentially grouped everyone against their decision to be an activist, rather than taking into consideration that people might be pissed off because they’ve completely gone back on what their company stands for.
Not a fan of their ‘deletefuckingeverything’ approach either.
I’m really disappointed to hear this, particularly from a company who have used their position on animal testing as a selling point of their brand.
I have always been against animal testing for cosmetics and thought I always bought products which weren’t tested on animals. The recent LUSH campaign prompted me to do some online research and check the position of all the companies I buy products from and I have been left in a quandary and am interested to know your thoughts. I have bought Liz Earle products for many years. One of the reasons I do so is becuase they are approved by BUAV, however Avon which now owns Liz Earle do test on animals. Does this mean that I now shouldn’t buy Liz Earle and should Liz Earle still be BUAV approved?
I’d like to see more openness from companies in general about whether they test on animals or not.
I thought Avon didn’t test on animals? Also, can someone please let me know if Guerlain test on animals?
I’m so glad that you have covered this. I’m disgusted with Urban Decay. It is an ugly decision – hypocritical and money-grabbing. I also agree with the first commenter about their inappropriate/divisive use of the word ‘activist’. Their initial press release was disgraceful and almost comically inept. (They spent the day editing it and finally removed most of it from their Facebook page). I will not buy their products again, partly because they attempted to treat long time, thoughtful customers as idiots but also because their cruelty-free statements stamped all over their products are now nothing but a bad joke. They commanded the kind of goodwill, respect and loyalty that most brands can only dream of and they shot it to pieces in a single day. Incredibly stupid and arrogant.
I’ve been reading about this for a few days now. The point that’s really put my nose out of joint is, as you say, the ‘we’re only trying to help’ attitude.
Big difference between the development of scientific principle or a moral stance and a really offensive colonialist prejudice. Chinese culture has had plenty of time to develop a complex, detailed perspective on the relationship between man and animal.
It’s difficult to get excited about women from other cultures gaining access to products and different beauty ideas if they arrive with the implication of inferiority.