Cruelty-Free Products, Animal testing, dogs bred for muscular dystrophy experiments, University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou), Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine
How to Make Sure the Products You Purchase Are Actually Cruelty-Free. Each year, an estimated 115 million animals — rabbits, mice, dogs, cats, pigs, and other species — are used globally in tests conducted by the medical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as in tests of cosmetic and household products. It’s a staggering number, especially when you consider the alternatives available for many outdated testing practices. In the U.S., cosmetics aren’t even required to be tested on animals and the practice has already been banned in several countries, so why do they allow subjecting animals to such cruel and inhumane practices?
During cosmetic and household product testing, animals undergo painful experiments that involve exposing skin and eyes to potentially dangerous substances, forcing animals to inhale toxic fumes (such as oven cleaner), and injecting them with toxins to determine long-terms effects. These animals are just like our beloved household pets, yet they’re subjected to unimaginable cruelty, only to be euthanized once they’re no longer of use to the company.
Sadly, a lot of popular household brands test everything from shampoo to laundry detergent on animals, even though it’s not necessary. More products claiming to be produced without the use of animal testing are hitting the market, but what do all of the labels mean and how can you be sure that what you purchase is truly cruelty-free?
Reading Product Labels
When you’re reading the labels of products, you might see a logo or a variety of phrases saying the product wasn’t tested on animals. Labels stating “This Finished Product Not Tested on Animals” or “Not Tested on Animals” mean the product itself wasn’t tested on animals — but the individual ingredients could have possibly been tested on animals by the company or a third party. And according to Leaping Bunny, even the words “Cruelty-Free” aren’t a guarantee that animal testing hasn’t occurred somewhere in the process.
The FDA doesn’t regulate the use of these terms, and their website states that: “Some companies may apply such claims solely to their finished cosmetic products. However, these companies may rely on raw material suppliers or contract laboratories to perform any animal testing necessary to substantiate product or ingredient safety.”
It’s all a bit confusing, but don’t give up on trying to find the right products. To ensure you’re buying products that are actually cruelty-free, look for those featuring the Leaping Bunny logo or PETA’s bunny logo. Both organizations thoroughly vet companies and their procedures to determine whether they meet cruelty-free standards.
Leaping Bunny has an app and comprehensive online guide to approved brands that you can browse, making it easy to find cruelty-free products for your entire home. And Beagle Freedom Project has a Cruelty Cutter app that allows you to scan the barcode of a product to see whether it’s cruelty-free. You can also share the results on social media to help spread the word about popular products that meet (or don’t meet) cruelty-free standards.
Finding a Company’s Animal Testing Policies
If you have a favorite company and want to find out their stance on animal testing, check their website. You might have to dig for the information, but using the website’s search tool can usually help you find it fairly quickly. When you’re doing your research, be sure to read between the lines. Some companies may not do the testing themselves, but rely on third-party companies to do the testing for them — or they might claim to “only test when it’s required by law,” which basically means they do test on animals.
There are also larger companies that conduct animal testing on some products, but not others that are part of a “natural” or “organic” product line. In other cases, you’ll find the cruelty-free logo on a product line only to find out that company is the subsidiary of one that tests on animals. Again, in these instances, you can turn to resources like Leaping Bunny that tell the full story about a product so you can feel confident about your purchase.
Other Ways You Can Help
The road to cruelty-free living doesn’t have to be complicated. There are plenty of amazing cruelty-free products on the market, or you can make your own at home. By going the DIY route you’ll not only save money but reduce your exposure to toxins and prevent harm to wildlife and marine animals by reducing the amount of plastic waste you generate.
Take additional action against animal testing by supporting legislation like The Humane Cosmetics Act, which aims to ban animal testing in the U.S. You can support this important piece of legislation by contacting your legislators, and by signing this petition urging the U.S. to ban cosmetic testing on animals.
Beauty doesn’t need to hurt, so let’s make sure we cut it out of all our personal products for the sake of animals!
For easy detailed lists of product to use, click here. Lead image source: Pixabay
What if It Was Your Dog? Video footage reveals dogs bred for muscular dystrophy experiments struggling to walk, swallow, and even breathe. SIGN THE PETITION
The footage given to PETA France by the group Animal Testing reveals that the dogs struggle to walk, swallow, and even breathe.
Breeding Pain and Misery in a French Laboratory
The dogs are genetically prone to different types of muscular dystrophy (MD), including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which is particularly severe. These diseases ravage their bodies and are characterised by progressive muscle wasting and weakness. Most dogs never reach adulthood. Some are completely crippled before they even reach 6 months old, and half endure agonising deaths before the age of 10 months.
The heart-breaking video footage shot inside a laboratory in Alfort shows dogs having difficulty swallowing, breathing, and walking as their muscles continue to weaken. Drool drips from the mouths of dogs whose jaw muscles have deteriorated. One dog had so much difficulty eating and holding down his food because of the progressive weakening of his oesophageal muscles that vomit covered his face.
Some dogs eventually lose their ability to eat and must then be fed through a stomach tube. Surviving dogs will develop heart problems as the disease attacks and weakens the cardiac muscle.
A laboratory employee admitted that the dogs suffer. He said,
"I wouldn't like to be in the beagle's place. The suffering is real."
Bad Science
What have these painful experiments accomplished?
After decades of testing on generations of debilitated and suffering dogs, there is still no cure or treatment to reverse the course of this terrible disease in humans. So children afflicted with DMD continue to suffer.
Analysis of MD studies using dogs has shown that there are serious pitfalls when trying to apply those results to humans. In fact, there are even studies that have produced the opposite results in humans. There are better ways to help patients with muscle diseases.
Cutting-edge techniques, such as utilising stem cells from DMD patients to develop disease-specific cures, developing ways to grow healthy human muscle cells that could be transplanted into patients with MD, and creating human-relevant drug-screening platforms, have led to the development of more promising therapies.
Téléthon: Helping or Hurting?
The experiments at Alfort are funded by the French charity AFM-Téléthon. However, a laboratory representative admits that they could lose funding if the public were to see the condition of the dogs.
"There's no question that if we showed them our myopathic dogs, we would risk losing a lot of money."
As well they should.
You Can Help Stop This!
Please sign our petition to Téléthon urging the charity to stop funding these cruel experiments on dogs and to support only modern, non-animal studies.
And, it pains me, as I am sure it does you, to think about young pigs like her being held down on operating tables as emergency medicine residents are instructed to cut into their bodies, spread their ribs, and stick needles into their hearts.
Right now, pigs are going to die unless we stop the University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou) from requiring emergency medicine residents to practice on pigs.
So I’m reaching out one more time to ask you for help. Please make a gift to PCRM right now—put your compassion into action.
The more members we have, the more pressure we can put on Mizzou to shut down its animal lab for good. Our past campaigns have proven that every voice makes a difference—and together we can stamp out cruelty one institution at a time.
On behalf of all of the animals and people whose lives you make better, thank you. I truly appreciate your active involvement with PCRM’s lifesaving work.
Sadly, a lot of popular household brands test everything from shampoo to laundry detergent on animals, even though it’s not necessary. More products claiming to be produced without the use of animal testing are hitting the market, but what do all of the labels mean and how can you be sure that what you purchase is truly cruelty-free?
Reading Product Labels
When you’re reading the labels of products, you might see a logo or a variety of phrases saying the product wasn’t tested on animals. Labels stating “This Finished Product Not Tested on Animals” or “Not Tested on Animals” mean the product itself wasn’t tested on animals — but the individual ingredients could have possibly been tested on animals by the company or a third party. And according to Leaping Bunny, even the words “Cruelty-Free” aren’t a guarantee that animal testing hasn’t occurred somewhere in the process.
The FDA doesn’t regulate the use of these terms, and their website states that: “Some companies may apply such claims solely to their finished cosmetic products. However, these companies may rely on raw material suppliers or contract laboratories to perform any animal testing necessary to substantiate product or ingredient safety.”
It’s all a bit confusing, but don’t give up on trying to find the right products. To ensure you’re buying products that are actually cruelty-free, look for those featuring the Leaping Bunny logo or PETA’s bunny logo. Both organizations thoroughly vet companies and their procedures to determine whether they meet cruelty-free standards.
Leaping Bunny has an app and comprehensive online guide to approved brands that you can browse, making it easy to find cruelty-free products for your entire home. And Beagle Freedom Project has a Cruelty Cutter app that allows you to scan the barcode of a product to see whether it’s cruelty-free. You can also share the results on social media to help spread the word about popular products that meet (or don’t meet) cruelty-free standards.
Finding a Company’s Animal Testing Policies
If you have a favorite company and want to find out their stance on animal testing, check their website. You might have to dig for the information, but using the website’s search tool can usually help you find it fairly quickly. When you’re doing your research, be sure to read between the lines. Some companies may not do the testing themselves, but rely on third-party companies to do the testing for them — or they might claim to “only test when it’s required by law,” which basically means they do test on animals.
There are also larger companies that conduct animal testing on some products, but not others that are part of a “natural” or “organic” product line. In other cases, you’ll find the cruelty-free logo on a product line only to find out that company is the subsidiary of one that tests on animals. Again, in these instances, you can turn to resources like Leaping Bunny that tell the full story about a product so you can feel confident about your purchase.
Other Ways You Can Help
The road to cruelty-free living doesn’t have to be complicated. There are plenty of amazing cruelty-free products on the market, or you can make your own at home. By going the DIY route you’ll not only save money but reduce your exposure to toxins and prevent harm to wildlife and marine animals by reducing the amount of plastic waste you generate.
Take additional action against animal testing by supporting legislation like The Humane Cosmetics Act, which aims to ban animal testing in the U.S. You can support this important piece of legislation by contacting your legislators, and by signing this petition urging the U.S. to ban cosmetic testing on animals.
Beauty doesn’t need to hurt, so let’s make sure we cut it out of all our personal products for the sake of animals!
For easy detailed lists of product to use, click here. Lead image source: Pixabay
The footage given to PETA France by the group Animal Testing reveals that the dogs struggle to walk, swallow, and even breathe.
Breeding Pain and Misery in a French Laboratory
The dogs are genetically prone to different types of muscular dystrophy (MD), including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which is particularly severe. These diseases ravage their bodies and are characterised by progressive muscle wasting and weakness. Most dogs never reach adulthood. Some are completely crippled before they even reach 6 months old, and half endure agonising deaths before the age of 10 months.
The heart-breaking video footage shot inside a laboratory in Alfort shows dogs having difficulty swallowing, breathing, and walking as their muscles continue to weaken. Drool drips from the mouths of dogs whose jaw muscles have deteriorated. One dog had so much difficulty eating and holding down his food because of the progressive weakening of his oesophageal muscles that vomit covered his face.
Some dogs eventually lose their ability to eat and must then be fed through a stomach tube. Surviving dogs will develop heart problems as the disease attacks and weakens the cardiac muscle.
A laboratory employee admitted that the dogs suffer. He said,
"I wouldn't like to be in the beagle's place. The suffering is real."
What have these painful experiments accomplished?
After decades of testing on generations of debilitated and suffering dogs, there is still no cure or treatment to reverse the course of this terrible disease in humans. So children afflicted with DMD continue to suffer.
Analysis of MD studies using dogs has shown that there are serious pitfalls when trying to apply those results to humans. In fact, there are even studies that have produced the opposite results in humans. There are better ways to help patients with muscle diseases.
Cutting-edge techniques, such as utilising stem cells from DMD patients to develop disease-specific cures, developing ways to grow healthy human muscle cells that could be transplanted into patients with MD, and creating human-relevant drug-screening platforms, have led to the development of more promising therapies.
Téléthon: Helping or Hurting?
The experiments at Alfort are funded by the French charity AFM-Téléthon. However, a laboratory representative admits that they could lose funding if the public were to see the condition of the dogs.
"There's no question that if we showed them our myopathic dogs, we would risk losing a lot of money."
As well they should.
You Can Help Stop This!
Please sign our petition to Téléthon urging the charity to stop funding these cruel experiments on dogs and to support only modern, non-animal studies.
And, it pains me, as I am sure it does you, to think about young pigs like her being held down on operating tables as emergency medicine residents are instructed to cut into their bodies, spread their ribs, and stick needles into their hearts.
Right now, pigs are going to die unless we stop the University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou) from requiring emergency medicine residents to practice on pigs.
So I’m reaching out one more time to ask you for help. Please make a gift to PCRM right now—put your compassion into action.
The more members we have, the more pressure we can put on Mizzou to shut down its animal lab for good. Our past campaigns have proven that every voice makes a difference—and together we can stamp out cruelty one institution at a time.
On behalf of all of the animals and people whose lives you make better, thank you. I truly appreciate your active involvement with PCRM’s lifesaving work.