Why use cruelty free products? Toxins, cancer, us and the environment.

So apart from the fact that cruelty free products are not tested on animals and a lot of them do not contain animal ingredients. The companies which care about the animals also care about the health impact on people and the environmental impact.

The regular bath and body products, soaps, shampoos, moisturizers, household cleaners, laundry and dish cleaners and so on.. contain carcinogens, irritants, allergens, hormone disruptors, and other hazardous materials which can affect you and your body and the kids in all sorts of ways. The parabens, sulfates, phosphates are carcinogenic to humans and eventually end up in oceans polluting and poisoning them.

Here are some examples of daily products and carcinogens in them http://www.wikicancer.org/page/The+list+of+carcinogens

Here is a list of all possible hazardous materials http://www.preventcancer.com/press/pdfs/hazardous.pdf

Here's how to make you own green and non toxic cleaning kit http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-non-toxic-cleaning-kit.html#

There are many more detailed articles on the web about what toxins affect your health in which way. Look up the ingredients in your current set of products and do a web search!

Finding a safe daily use or household product, which is safe for us, for the environment and is kind to animals(non animal tested) seems like a long research task.. But it is easier than that.. The companies that stick to their policy of being cruelty free, also have policies about ingredients, where they come from and their impact on the people, animals and the environment

The products you pick out from the cruelty free list at Leaping Bunny or PETA are definitely going to have all natural ingredients(some have completely vegan options as well), no parabens, sulfates or other harmful chemicals, containers made with recycled or recyclable materials, non animal tested, certified organic, non genetically modified and so on. Or We can also make our own non toxic house cleaning products !

My earlier posts about Animal testing http://offspaces.blogspot.com/2009/11/animal-testing.html

and Cruelty free options and what we use in this household http://offspaces.blogspot.com/2011/02/cruelty-free-alternatives.html

Cruelty free Options in India

For cruelty free or vegan alternatives to daily use products and foods, restaurants etc please see

http://www.indianvegan.com
http://www.veganpeace.com
http://www.sharan-india.org
http://www.sadhanaforest.org
http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/natural.html
http://vegan-india.blogspot.com/

More information of new products on the market and discussions can be found on the Indian Vegan facebook page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=375742900469&v=wall

Cruelty free Options in the USofA

Here are some cruelty free and mostly vegan products and brands that we use and some we have tried at home

• Toothpaste: Toms of Maine, Kiss my Face, Jason
• Soaps: Hugo Naturals, Burts Bees, Kiss my Face, Toms of Maine, wholefoods local vegan bars
• Shampoos and Conditioners and hair products: Avalon, Jason, Yes to Carrots, Burts Bees, Organix, Paul Mitchell
• Face wash, moisturising creams, scrubs: Burts bees, Queen Helene, Beauty without cruelty, Avalon, Jason
• Cosmetics: Urban Decay, Mary Kay, Afterglow.. complete list here http://www.leapingbunny.org/color.php

• Home Cleaning, Dish, Laundry, Bathroom, Carpet: Method, Seventh Generation.
• Chewie's grooming: Paul Mitchell. Halo

Whenever you think of getting any of your usual daily use products.. think about chewie or coco, living life in a tiny lab, and high concentrations of products being out in their eyes and on their skin,, till they go blind or die of the pain.

Animal testing is totally obsolete and unnecessary. There are several alternatives like testing in a tiny petri dish of cells..to ensure the safety of products. Read about them here. http://caat.jhsph.edu/ or here http://www.livingcrueltyfree.com/alternatives-to-animal-testing/

Complete guide to shopping cruelty free http://www.leapingbunny.org/shopping.php

Alternatives

Alternatives to things like

Circus... a bad place, where wild animals are kept in tiny cages and tortured to do unnatural things..

Go for a safari and see those animals in a natural environment.

Seaworld... and other aquatic parks.. same as circuses. Can u imagine having just 50 sq ft to live in all your life..

Go for whale and dolphin tours.. You will see the same tricks.. but in a happy and free big ocean.

Snake charmers.... snakes taken out of their natural habitat every year, and their teeth yanked out.. and they eventually die a slow death or end up as handbags.

Go to florida everglades.. There are enough snakes, gators and other reptiles to last you a lifetime of reptilian watching pleasure.

The Cost in most cases will be the same for the alternatives to us..

But the cost to the animals is way different...

Veganism

Veganism as defined in Wikipedia

Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle whose adherents seek to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind. The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are human health, ethical commitment or moral conviction concerning animal rights or welfare, the environment, and spiritual or religious concerns. Of particular concern to many vegans are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources for animal farming.

A Vegan diet excludes all animal products such as milk, dairy, eggs, any meat and so on. It is definitely a difficult lifestyle to choose. Because you definitely can find ethical alternatives, like certified local farms who will provide you with organic and ethical milk and meat. And in most discussions with aggressive vegans, the question of humane slaughter for meat always comes up. In my opinion, there is probably no way to kill an animal humanely. But if you look around other carnivores around you, you will see that the way a carnivore lion or a tiger kills a deer is not pleasant either. What I support about these ethical farms is that they try to give their flock a happy life before they are eventually killed for food like the life they would have had in the wild before eventually getting hunted by a carnivore. Most ethical dairy farms infact have a really low kill rate because they are not necessarily in the meat industry.

This knowledge however does not necessarily give me any prolonged solace about continuing to use these products ! Who really ensures that the farms and suppliers stick to the requirements for them to be certified ethical, humane, organic and cruelty free. How frequently are the requirements checked? There are several believable organizations who do take up the charge, but I find it difficult to keep believing that the model will be sustainable. Eventually, if the demand for ethical and organic food increases, these farms will end up becoming industrialized to meet the demand. It is like an endless cycle.

Like every person in the process of converting to Vegan-ism, I am going through a transition phase, trying out new things, substitutions, being confused some days and so on. Even though it is such passionate cause, it is always difficult to convince everyone around you to just give up and change their entire food and living habits. So I am trying to figure out a process of change. A small change in every aspect, a change to find other options for people who cannot completely give up yet, options which are ethical, options that make sense to someone who cannot grasp your passion about the cause, options that will eventually help them understand and slowly move towards a better, a right, direction. The mantra..Just be as kind as you can be.. be it what you eat, what you use, what you see and what you do..

If you have some time, please do read up some great write ups about why Veganism and how being Vegan is just an extension to being human, here

http://tumyumtreats.blogspot.com/2010/09/vegan-and-why.html

and

http://earthvegan.blogspot.com/2007/07/why-am-i-vegan.html

Ethical Omnivore!

Ever stop and think , can we live a single minute of our lives cruelty-free?

• We wake up, brush our teeth. -That toothpaste and the ingredients were tested on animals.
• Have a bath..- That soap, facial cleanser, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel were tested on some poor rabbits.
• Get ready, wear some nice clothes, shoes - The wool, fur, silk came from animals who lead a tortured life. That leather shoe could be that dog, your neighbor lost as a kid, which ended up in china.. for its meat and skin and any possible use that can be made out of it.
• Fix hair..do some makeup/shave..- The sprays, mousse, foam, cosmetics were all tested on animals.. There are labs out there, with tons of animals, who have to live a horrid life of getting things injected in their body, eyes, ears and more, just so we can get that new lipstick from this seasons new collection.
• Cook up some breakfast..some nice eggs and bread with some hot tea..- The eggs come from factory farmed hens and the milk from cows who have udders 5 times the size of what they actually should be. With that much milk in their udders, they are in constant pain and have constant infections and hence all the hormones and antibiotics which end up in our system.
• Get to office, get coffee and eat and drink meat, cheese, butter and milk and other combinations of the same. - All factory farmed.
• Get home, cook dinner, clean the kitchen, do the dishes or the laundry..- The household cleaners, dish soap, laundry detergent.. and their ingredients were all tested on animals and still are.. for every new one that comes out.
• Watch something for entertainment like some animals in a circus, animal fights etc( oh yes, the supreme court thinks that dog fight videos are not cruel. They overturned a ban on those videos just last week) Animals in circuses have the worst life ever. Always chained and tortured to perform for our entertainment.
• Eat some desserts, ice creams, and head to bed..- all the creamy cakes, the frosting, cream, butter, eggs, milk.. all factory farmed. We consume so much dairy in a day.. ever think , out of the milk a cow produces..how much does its calf get?

It sounds like a really big deal to change so many things to be cruelty free. But it isn't really that big. One small step is good enough. That one small step will give you so much happiness that the next step will seem like an effortless extrapolation of the first. It is just about the first step. And If you are reading this, you cant even claim ignorance anymore.

For the bath and body, there are a lot of vegan products which are also animal testing free which are available in Whole foods, PCC or metropolitan market. The complete list of cruelty-free companies here http://www.leapingbunny.org/shopping.php . Some of the once I have tried are Hugo Naturals, Lush, Body shop, Organix, Pureology, Paul Mitchell and more. A lot of the brands are very comparable in terms of prices.

For food..We can try to be an Ethical Omnivore.. It is difficult but not impossible to find ethical, humane and organic meat. Whole foods and PCC is where you can find a good number of options. The Farms, brands, and places to get ethically raised meat here

http://www.certifiedhumane.org/

You can find the milk farms with ethical and organic practices below. All other dairy products like cheeses, butter from these farms also follow the same guidelines.

http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

Do change the meat, milk, eggs, cheese to these humane brands and those happy animals will send a big thanks to you. There is hardly a difference in the prices and some of the brands are readily available in the regular grocery store. The big difference is that these are from an animal who had a decently happy life till its eventual slaughter.

For household cleaners, dish and laundry, you can find the complete list at http://www.leapingbunny.org/shopping.php. I have used Seventh generation and Method and most products are very comparable in terms of price and performance.

The post is of course is preachy and my views extreme, but we all know that all this pain and cruelty is totally unnecessary and easily avoidable. Let us take those few minutes from our life to move in the direction of eliminating this pain.. just a few minutes and just one small step. Try it...

Cruelty Free Pet food

If you thought that your pet is living cruelty free .. think again.

Companies like Iams, Purina and other biggies, have animal testing labs where animals are kept in small cement enclosures and their stomachs pumped with food. Several other tests are conducted and the animals are then euthanized once they are incapable of being tested on anymore. There is more to this and it can be read here http://www.iamscruelty.com/

I just dont like shocking people into action because I know how much of a heartache it is to watch any such video of crazy inhumane humans. But sometimes it is quite necessary.

One day, hubby dear made a small joke about fur and I did not take it well. So I sent him some videos of how animals are skinned alive and how they are transported to and from the cruel facilities where they are skinned alive and left to die a slow painful death. He could not eat dinner that day! and now he will always remember to a) never buy fur, b) check all not that visible fur trimmings to see if they are faux or real. (trick to check faux fur -> http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/fur/field-guide-on-real-vs-fake-fur-final.pdf )

Heres a list of pet foods from PETA which are cruelty free.

Though cruelty free is a general term used by anyone and everyone, my definition of cruelty free is no animal testing on finished product as well as ingredients. On my blog i will usually add another category called cruelty free and vegan meaning no animal by products were used along with no animal testing.

• Amoré Pet Services, Inc., 1-866-572-6673; www.amorepetfoods.com
• Animal Food Services, 1-800-743-0322; www.animalfood.com
• Artemis Pet Food, 1-800-282-5876; www.artemiscompany.com
• Azmira Holistic Animal Care, 1-800-497-5665; www.azmira.com
• Bone Vivant, www.bonevivantstore.com
• Boston Baked Bonz (entirely vegan), 781-752-4040; www.bostonbakedbonz.com
• Bravo Raw Diet, 1-866-922-9222; www.bravorawdiet.comn
• Burns Pet Nutrition, 1-877-983-9651; www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk
• CaniSource, 1-888-347-3523; www.canisource.com
• CountryPet Pet Food, 1-800-454-7387; www.countrypet.com
• Dr. Harvey's, 1-866-362-4123; www.drharveys.com
• Dynamite Marketing, Inc., 208-887-9410; www.dynamitemarketing.com
• Eagle Pack, 1-800-255-5959; www.eaglepack.com
• Evanger's Dog and Cat Food Co., Inc., 1-800-288-6796; www.evangersdogfood.com
• Evolution Diet, Inc. (entirely vegan), 1-800-659-0104; www.petfoodshop.com
• Feline's Pride, www.felinespride.com
• Fromm Family Foods, 1-800-325-6331; www.frommfamily.com
• Great Life Performance Pet Products, 1-800-470-2001; www.greatlife4pets.com
• GreenTripe.com, 831-726-3255; www.greentripe.com
• Halo, Purely for Pets, 1-800-426-4256; www.halopets.com
• Happy Dog Food, 1-800-359-9576; www.happydogfood.com
• Harbingers of a New Age (entirely vegan), 406-295-4944; www.vegepet.com
• Holistic Blend, 1-800-954-1117; www.holisticblend.com
• The Honest Kitchen, 1-866-437-9729; www.thehonestkitchen.com
• Know Better Dog Food, 1-866-922-6463; www.knowbetterdogfood.com
• KosherPets, Inc., 954-938-6270; www.kosherpets.com
• Kumpi Pet Foods, 303-699-8562; www.kumpi.com
• Mark & Chappell, 1-866-547-3368; www.markandchappell.com
• Max & Ruffy's, 703-465-4481; www.maxandruffys.com
• Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc. (vegan options), 1-800-829-4493; www.naturalbalanceinc.com
• Natural Life Pet Products, Inc. (vegan options), 1-800-367-2391; www.nlpp.com
• Nature's Variety, 1-888-519-7387; www.naturesvariety.com
• Newman's Own Organics, www.newmansownorganics.com
• Nutri-Vet, 1-877-729-8668; www.nutri-vet.com
• Oma's Pride, 1-800-678-6627; www.omaspride.com
• Onesta Organics (entirely vegan), 619-295-1136; www.onestaorganics.com
• Pet Chef Express, 604-916-2433; www.petchefexpress.ca
• PetGuard (vegan options), 1-800-874-3221, 904-264-8500; www.petguard.com
• Pied Piper Pet & Wildlife, 1-800-338-4610; www.piedpiperpet.com
• PoshNosh Inc., 613-302-3156; www.poshnosh.ca
• Raw Advantage, Inc., 360-387-5158; www.rawadvantagepetfood.com
• Sauder Feeds, Inc., 260-627-2196; www.sauderfeeds.com
• Solid Gold, 1-800-364-4863; www.solidgoldhealth.com
• Sojourner Farms, 1-888-867-6567; www.sojos.com
• Timberwolf Organics, Inc., 863-439-0049; www.timberwolforganics.com
• V-dogfood, LLC (entirely vegan), 1-888-280-8364; www.v-dogfood.com
• Veterinary Nutritional Formula, 1-800-811-0530; www.vnfpetfood.com
• Want A Cookie?, 250-665-7387; www.wantacookie.ca
• Wow-Bow Distributors Ltd. (vegan options), 516-254-6064; www.wow-bow.com
• Wysong Professional Diets (vegan options), 1-800-748-0188; www.wysong.net

Please check PETA's list for updates here http://search.caringconsumer.com/

Thanks for reading, and please spread the word. We, the net gen use the viral nature of net for all stupid things like a stupid video of a guy shaving his bum.. but will not pass around some simple things which can make such a difference in the world. I think this is because it sounds too preachy, and is not fun. Not everything in life is fun ! and please dont wait for a life changing event to have that Aha moment.

Please also bookmark Emily's blog here http://www.livingcrueltyfree.com/

She has dome some awesome research and contacted many companies. If in doubt about anything, do look her blog up. She might already have that information on there.