More and more consumers are animal lovers, and their love of animals extends to what they buy. So more consumers are making purchasing decisions based on whether products are tested on animals.
Many manufacturers have embraced cruelty free as part of their corporate culture. Others just print phrases like “Against animal testing” on their products. But what exactly does this mean? Does it mean that the product was developed without any testing on animals? Or without any testing that would now be viewed as cruel?
In this episode of The Animal Guide for Curious Humans host Maureen Armstrong talks to Kim Paschen, manager of the Leaping Bunny Program, a well-established cruelty-free certification program for cosmetics, personal care and household products that guarantees products to be free of animal testing at all stages of product development. The program is operated by the Coalition for Consumer Information On Cosmetics in the US and Canada and by Cruelty Free International for products manufactured elsewhere.
Kim manages the day-to-day operations of the program to ensure its integrity in addition to working with certified companies on a wide variety of promotions.
Consumers face challenges when identifying cruelty-free products
Since there is no universally recognized definition of ‘Not tested on animals’ or ‘Cruelty-free’, shopping cruelty free can be challenging. In some instances, manufacturers add labels or wording to their products to try to mislead consumers into thinking they are cruelty-free.
Fortunately, the Leaping Bunny certification program is available to companies who want their customers to know for sure their products are cruelty free. When you see the Leaping Bunny logo on a product, you can be confident that neither the product itself nor any of its ingredients has been tested on animals. Today, more than 2200 companies are certified under the program.
Kim talks about the program, the standards it uses and the organisations behind this world renowned certification program.
Episode Links and resources:
- www.leapingbunny.org
- facebook.com/leapingbunny
- Instagram.com/leapingbunnyprogram
- https://ethicalelephant.com/cruelty-free-logos/
- https://www.ifaw.org
Show links:
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