“Is my shampoo cruelty free?” That should be the next question you ask yourself. Even if you don't eat meat, you might be indirectly harming animals through the products you use. For many years, animals have been exploited for research and product testing. Like us, animals are also living beings that feel pain and are conscious of their surroundings. They deserve to be treated respectfully, not tortured. Animal testing is an extremely harmful process. For example, the infamous toxicity testing done on animals inflicts extreme pain and suffering on the animals that are tested, oftentimes resulting in their death. In these instances, the animals are just viewed as “experiments”, and their death is somewhat “irrelevant” to the people who make and purchase these products.
By avoiding products that test on animals, you will be making a huge difference. Avoiding brands that test on animals creates less demand, convincing those brands to change their practices for the better. To check if the product is cruelty-free, look for the cruelty-free label or the bunny on the bottle. If you aren’t sure, you can always use the internet to check if the brand conducts animal testing.
Is the suffering of animals really worth human benefit? No animal deserves to die because humans need to test ideas. There are other ways to test products and conduct research that do not harm animals. Over 50 possible alternatives to animal testing have been discovered and proven to work. Some examples include computers, cell cultures,blood donations from human volunteers, etc. These are just some of the many harmless and cruelty-free alternatives to research and product testing.
In addition to saving animals, cruelty-free products are also healthier for you. Products that are cruelty-free are generally free of damaging chemicals. Animal testing can indicate that there may be a certain degree of unhealthy chemicals in the product. Just think about it. The fact that the brand chose to test on animals shows that there might be harmful chemicals that they are hesitant to test on humans first. This doesn’t seem to harm them since animals are “experiments” anyways right?
So the next time you buy shampoo, conditioner, soap, or any other products of that sort, make sure you check that they are cruelty free and do not test on animals. It may just be a small change to your lifestyle, but that one small change can save many lives.
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