Isn't it time humans advanced away from animal testing?

It was such pleasure to be filming with the wonderful Naturewatch Foundation who are working hard to eliminate animal testing from our lives. As PETA's Compassionate Designer, I wanted to help to publicise this charity's 'Paint With Kindness, Not Cruelty' campaign.

Household products - including paint, adhesives, grout, lacquers and coatings are particularly full of loopholes within the 'ban' we have here in the UK and the sector is sadly lagging behind the improvements being made for eliminating animal testing for cleaning products and personal care.

The Naturewatch Foundation have a brilliant guide which is on it's 17th edition and was began two years after the charity started in 2001.  The guide can be accessed freely on their website - which they are gathering research for on household products to add a new catagory (including decorating products) - which is certainly going to help me in my work - as it's very hard territory to navigate! 

Helping with this research is something any of us can help with by sending their letter template to their favourite paint companies with some key questions in to help with transparency. They'd also love us to help with their petition to the new government on the household products animal testing - which even though it's been banned - is sadly full of loopholes - causing much confusion with consumers (and me!) I look forward to sharing more on this with you - but in meantime please sign the petition, use the research letter template and their compassionate shopping guide.

 

In the conversation with Natalie Harney, campaign manager for the charity's campaign, I talked about the newly formed International Vegan Interior Design Association (IVIDA) . Our discussions within the IVIDA group have shown how the lack of clarity around animal testing is an worldwide issue, that is surrounded with much confusion and is very open to interpretation thanks partly to the lack of definitions of 'cruelty free' and 'vegan' in our laws.

What's the difference between vegan + cruelty free?

Collins dictionary definitions:

Vegan means ‘produced without exploiting animals in any way’.

 

Cruelty Free is sometimes used as a softer and less diet-related term, but Cruelty Free really only means ‘developed without being tested on animals’, which obviously is a good thing, but is not the same as a product or material that is guaranteed not to include ingredients derived from animals.

You may be surprised to learn there is no definition in UK law for vegan or cruelty free....

Companies can self-state a product is vegan simple because it has no obvious animal products in it.

Companies can still say a product is 'vegan' even if it's been tested on animals because of that lack of a legal definition.

 

Is there a legal definition where you are?

 

In our discussion I question if animal testing is outmoded and Natalie clarifies the status in the UK.  We also talked about my concern for health and ecological pollution due to the toxicity of chemicals used in interiors plus the multitude of alternatives to animal testing that exist. I'll add the You Tube link once it's launched.

 

Trusted labels + guides

  • Naturewatch Compassionate Shopping Guide
  • The Vegan Society's Vegan Trademark
  • PETA approved label
  • Ethical Consumer Magazine guides
  • PETA's Homeware Awards

 

Note:

  • Declare label - NB having this label doesn’t mean its good - it means it’s transparent
  • B Corp - the Impact Assessment does contain questions on animals but they don’t carry a score currently (their whole assessment is being updated)

 

Things you can do

1️⃣  Sign petition - the UK ‘banned’ testing household products on animals. But the ban is full of loopholes. www.action.naturewatch.org/makeover-the-ban

2️⃣  Use their letter template to contact your suppliers to help with their research for their ‘Paint with Kindness, Not Cruelty’ campaign.  If you are outside of the UK use this to apply pressure in your country www.compassionateshoppingguide.org/decorating-brands-template/

3️⃣  Use their Compassionate Shopping Guide once updated with this household products research www.compassionateshoppingguide.org/

If you are a paint company - get yourselfves in the guide - it completely free!

4️⃣  Donate to the Naturewatch foundation, please support this UK animal welfare charity https://naturewatch.org/get-involved/donate/#donateform or even leave a legacy https://naturewatch.org/get-involved/other-ways-to-help/leave-a-legacy/

 

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