Bag Wars -- Paper vs Plastic: The Real Truth - save the lives of animals!!

Please help stop this measure NOW! Don’t let the U.S. federal government tar animal advocacy with the taint of terrorism!
 

Vote with your dollar!  Buy cosmetics from companies that don't use animal testing!

Buy supplements from companies that don't use animal testing!

Horrors of Animal Testing Video - Grouper

Animal Testing Ban for Cosmetics to be upheld rules EU court

Bausch & Lomb contributing $1,267,750 to find replacement for Driaze test.

Boycott OHSU

Learn More:


Animal Testing: The Animal Rights Debate



Lethal Laws: Animal Testing, Human Health, and Environmental Policy



Animal Experimentation and Testing: A Pro/Con Issue (Hot Pro/Con Issues)

Other books of interest

Animal Testing and Consumer Products


Victims of Vanity: Animal Testing of Cosmetics and Household Products and How to Stop It


  Animal Testing Alternatives in Health Sciences: Index of New Information With Authors, Subjects and Bibliography


Long-Term Animal Studies: Their Predictive Value for Man (Cmrx Workshop Series)


 

Buy From Companies that Don't use Animal Testing
Support Cruelty Free Companies

Most people would never consider harming an animal yet many don't realize that commonly purchased products such as nail polish remover, shampoo, or toilet bowl cleaner are produced by companies who torture and/or kill innocent animals in the making of their product.  Dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs and others, are routinely used in painful and unnecessary tests for which there are alternative, more effective tests available. 

Cruel and ineffective tests
According to the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, 80%-90% of the animals (mice, rats and birds) used in testing are not covered by the Federal Animal Welfare Act which means that they often do not receive humane treatment and are made to suffer considerable pain and discomfort during the course of experiments.  In addition, the act does not provide for adequate pain relief even for the animals that are covered.  Animals may be burned, maimed, and killed without anesthesia.

Two commonly used tests for determining the safety of products are LD50 and the Draize test.  LD50 is used to determine toxicity and named for lethal dose 50%.  LD50 calls for force feeding animals enough of a substance to kill 50% of a test group. The 50% that don't die are ill and/or near death and are killed and autopsied. The Draize test is used to measure eye irritation and  typically uses rabbits. A substance is dropped into their eyes so that the resulting damage can be observed. The rabbits are held in stocks so that they can't move and their eyes are forcibly held open. These tests can go on for days, weeks or months while innocent animals are subjected to horrific pain, typically without pain killer or other humane interventions. 

The irony is that most of these tests have never been scientifically proven to be valid. In fact, many scientists argue that these tests are not appropriate for determining responses in humans and there are scores of results to support their argument. According to WorldAnimal.net, the Draize test accurately reflects human experience less than 50% of the time.  The Physicians Comittee for Responsible Medicine states that LD50 is highly unreliable and has little relevance for human toxicity while in vitro tests (meaning tests conducted in a test tube or petri dish), using human cells have been shown to be more accurate.

Animal testing for cosmetics and household products is not required by law
In the US and many other countries, the cosmetics and household product industries are not required by law to test their products on animals but continue to do so. Some think they continue this horrific practice in order to limit their liability in case of lawsuits. According to CNN.com,  Britain, Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands have already banned cosmetics tests on animals and the European Parliament has passed a law banning the testing of cosmetics on animals which will take effect in 2009.  

Every dollar is a vote!
As consumers we have a powerful tool, we can vote with our dollars, encouraging companies to develop and utilize alternative testing methods or continue their cruel and inhumane practices. Consumers who have refused to buy from companies that employ unnecessary animal testing have already made a big difference. Because of these conscientious individuals there are many companies who do not use animal testing.

We recommend products from companies that do not use animal testing.
At Web Shop Emporium, we check every manufacturer of our listed cruelty free cosmetics and cruelty free supplements to ensure that they do not use animal testing. We will not list any products that are manufactured by a company that does animal testing not required by law. If you notice any discrepancy with this policy, please notify us by clicking here.

Tips on how to find cruelty free products
First, check our Animal Testing Free Cosmetics and Animal Testing Free Supplements pages where you will find a list of brands.  If the brand is listed on these pages, then we have  determined that they do not test on animals unless it is required by law.  If you do not find the brand you are wondering about, read on for tips on how to find out if a company uses animal testing.

Finding a label with the words "Cruelty Free" or "Not tested on animals" is no guarantee that the product ingredients are not tested on animals.  According to the FDA, there are no legal definitions for these phrases. Companies are free to use these designations to mean anything that they choose. Some manufacturers will state that they don't use animal testing on their products but they fail to mention that they test individual ingredients so you must be specific in asking if they currently test products and/or ingredients. You should also ask if they hire anyone else to do animal testing for them or if they donate products for animal testing. 

Just because a company has a product that states "Not tested on animals" does not mean that they don't conduct animal tests on other products/brands that they manufacture. Note:  Most if not all of the  ingredients that have been around for awhile have been tested on animals. What you want to ensure is that the company does not currently use animal testing on products or ingredients unless required by law.

If you are trying to determine the animal testing status for a product that you already use, first check the manufacturer in the links below to determine if they are on one of the lists.  If they are, then we have already either found the company on the PETA website or we have personally called the company to determine whether they test on animals.  If they are not on the list of brands, check the product label for a phone number or website. If that yields no results, look for the manufacturer on the world wide web by doing a search in a search engine like www.google.com or www.yahoo.com.  You can also try entering www.manufacturername.com  in a search engine or in your browser as a URL (address). With the information found on the manufacturer website (and there are very few that don't have a website), you can e-mail, write or call them to ask specifics about their animal testing policies. 

See who does and does not use animal testing

CaringConsumer.com PETA - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals
PETA's criteria is that the company only conduct animal testing if it is required by law. They have to meet other requirements as well, such as the company cannot buy raw materials from manufacturers that use animal testing etc.

In Defense of Animals

National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAV)
(Quote received in an e-mail from NAV on July 18, 2004.)
"If the company test on animals at all, whether required by law or not, we (NAV) give them a "tester" rating. This may change this year when we print our 12th edition. We may have a symbol for those companies who only test when they are required by law.."

New England Anti-Vivisection Society Cruelty Free list of companies

For further research:
Altweb-Alternatives to animal testing
AnimalLaw.com
IDA - In Defense of Animals
Johns Hopkin's Center for Alternative's to animal testing
National Anti-Vivisection Society
PETA - People for the ethical treatment of animals
The Humane Society of the United States - An overview of animal testing issues
StopAnimalTests.com > Consumer Product Companies

Animal Testing Note: Web Shop Emporium occasionally lists references to studies that have been conducted on animals. We do not condone testing on animals, and in fact we encourage everyone to vote for no animal testing with their dollar by supporting companies that don't use animal testing.

We always look for alternative test methods before we list an animal study.   We subscribe to the position of many, including The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, that there are other, more effective means of ensuring the safety and efficacy of medications and other products  That said, we feel it is a useless waste of the animal's lives to ignore the health information that has been obtained in the past.  As more companies develop alternative, more effective ways of testing, we hope that animal studies will become a thing of the past and more effective tests will replace them.

In an effort to help end animal testing, we only list cosmetics and supplements that have been produced by companies that do not use animal testing in their ingredients or products unless it is required by law.