CRUELTY-FREE

NATUREWATCH – LOOK NO FURTHER

Our only criteria for a household cleaner or body care product is not that it be Local, Fair-Trade or even Organic, it is that it is not tested on animals, something recognised in the term ‘Cruelty-Free’.

We do not believe that what we put on or in our bodies or clean our houses with should be tested on animals. We’re not, here, talking medical science, we’re talking lipstick and washing-up liquid, for goodness sake! Conditioner bars or dishwash tabs.

Bread, eye-shadow, bars of soap. The basic ingredients have already been in human use for thousands of years. Vinegar, salt, charcoal, lemon juice. Nothing new there. So what is it they create that so desperately requires testing on animals?

Nothing other than novel combinations to give patent rights and stuff from a lab that maybe you really don’t want to know too much about, but which probably acts differently on animals and humans. Let’s face it, different human bodies react differently to different foods. You can’t seriously do ‘blanket’ testing.

So: Animals? What, frankly, is the point?

It’s not like cats go around drinking coffee so why inject their stomachs with the stuff? Monkeys strapped into cars, which were crashed, to check the seat belts. Who needs this? Not the cats, not the monkeys and not us.

What is Cruelty-Free?

Simply: a claim that a product you buy has not been tested on animals. but, inevitably, humans being business people, there’s ‘not testing’ and then there’s ‘not testing’.

Maybe the finished product, your shampoo-refill or bar of soap, is not tested on animals but maybe the ingredients were!

Or maybe your country forbids animal-testing. Hmm…you had better find out what they actually mean by that*; and you’d better be prepared to dig deep. Whatever that search uncovers, your country may well allow, quite legitimately, products or ingredients to be imported, having been animal-tested abroad.

Some claim Cruelty-free but work to a 5-year Rolling Rule where they undertake no product or ingredient has been tested on animals in the last five years (2012: 2007). But the years roll, so by 2017 the cut-off will be 2012, by 2020 it’ll be 2015 and so on. And on. And on. The message is: keep testing on animals ’cause we’ll be your customer in just five years time! And for all I know that’s a perfectly normal ‘r&d-to-sale’ scale anyway.

Better. Much better is the Fixed Cut-Off Date. Here a date is chosen (any date: 1972, 1997, 25.12.21) by the company, beyond which they declare that no product or ingredient can have been tested on animals. Once chosen, that date can’t change, it’s fixed. The door to testing from that point on is shut! Permanently.

Complicating things is (you guessed) Business, or Money if you like.

1 I.A.M. Ghastly Ltd make Ash Ampoo a properly cruelty-free product, ingredients and everything. BUT, that company also makes Toil-et-Clean which resulted from various on-animal tests in maybe Ukay or maybe Foreign (makes no difference). WE do not call Ash Ampoo cruelty-free in The Green Shop and, therefore, we would never stock it.

2 Suppose I.A.M. Ghastly Ltd gets it’s act together and their entire company and all it’s products become certifiably cruelty-free. Enter Vile Corp of Kansarus who buy Ghastly. Vile themselves don’t test on animals but they own several companies spread across the globe, one of whom does. WE still do not call Ash Shampoo cruelty-free.

Its a bit like soy wax candles supporting GM agriculture – why buy the product when it helps the bad guy’s profit?

The problem for us is how do we find out, how do we know? And how to keep track because companies change ownership with depressing frequency?

On opening our shop we needed some sort of Standard by which to assess our stock (as we did with Organic – eventually gaining certification ourselves – and Fair Trade).

CFI – Cruelty Free International (formerly the BUAV) seemed the way to go, with that ‘cool’ Leaping Bunny logo and an over one hundred and twenty year history. But there is also PETA and, we found, The Naturewatch Trust. We chose to base our policy on Naturewatch’s standards. We thought then and still do that they have the best, most thorough requirements to call a product Cruelty-Free.

We only stock bodycare and household products from firms adhering to a Fixed Cut-Off Date. We also require written statements from them declaring their fixed cut-off date before we stock their stuff. Finally, without Naturewatch’s endorsement a product just doesn’t get in!

But, following Naturewatch, we go further. We insist that Cruelty-free and a fixed cut-off declaration also covers any parent, sister or daughter company and their products and ingredients too.

Our policy has long been based on the work of Naturewatch Check ’em out.

CRUELTY-FREE PRODUCTS ON SALE IN THE GREEN SHOP INCLUDE:

Shampoo and Conditioner. Soap (a large selection). Toothpastes (with and without fluoride – it’s the brushing that cleans your teeth, folks). Make-up. Bath Bombs. Deodorants. Lotions, Creams and Cleansers for Face, Body, Hands and Feet. A large variety of personal care products in which to luxuriate and with which to pamper yourself.

More mundane, perhaps, but no less necessary: Washing-up Liquid (and Refills). Washing Powder. Laundry Liquid (and Refills). Multi-Surface, Kitchen, Bath and Toilet cleaners (and refills). Disinfectant (and Refills), Degreasers, in fact, all manner of safe and effective help in caring for your home. These are petty much all vegan and ok for septic tanks, too.

We have built up a really good relationship with Naturewatch over these many years (thanks here to Ruth our delegated and dedicated Cruelty-free Supremo).

Quite a few firms gained Naturewatch’s endorsement through our prompting and Naturewatch have helped us enormously when in need of clarity regarding a company, product or ingredient.

But we have often struggled to get the Naturewatch point across, ‘though we usually get there in the end. It’s that Leaping Bunny logo. So simple, so instantly recognisable and so very cool but, we think, not quite good enough.

Cruelty Free International (CFI), formerly BUAV, have played catch-up with Naturewatch for years. They were very late in going for a Fixed Cut-Off Date – a vital weapon in the fight against animal-testing. And, even now, still endorse brands where the parent company tests on animals – and that’s a huge loophole. Two things Naturewatch had from the word go, by-the-way.

CFI are good but as they are the ones that everyone looks to (we do love a slick symbol, don’t we?) I’m highlighting the limitations of the standards behind the logo and inviting them to rise to the level of Naturewatch. Peta seems entry-level, CFI good “as far as…” but, for us, Naturewatch is the business!

*Testing on animals increased in the UK in 2021 and looks set to increase further through 2022 – what did you expect with over 40 years of business-friendly government, the truth?