The Cause I Will Fight For

It's somewhat unusual for me to take a politcal angle with the ole blog, but I need to talk about something. Maybe not political so much, but more along the lines of societal. The emphasis recently has been placed on "going green" and taking steps to care for the environment. Obviously this is critical and, might I add, about time! But I want to direct the focus elsewhere for a moment. I want to turn things to animal testing.
I was talking with Mum the other day and she told me her sister has started buying "cruelty-free" products, or products that aren't tested on animals. Seems reasonable, right? There are tons of products that advertise "against animal testing".
It got me thinking and so I started doing some research. Most of the products in my bathroom are manufactured by Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, or Johnson & Johnson. All three companies use animal testing on either the finished product or ingredients, or both. More research showed me that the only products in my bathroom that are "cruelty free" are my Maybelline makeup, Brad's Nivea shaving products, and my Canus soap. That's it. Everything else has been tested on animals.
More research showed the tests are totally unecessary and NOT required by law (with the exception of pharmaceuticals). Furthermore, many of them are completely useless as the results are meaningless since they're done on animals that have no relation to humans, and don't even share any characteristics with humans (rabbits for example have hypersensitive eyes that are so completely different from human eyes the comparison is not valid). They are all hideous, but some are above and beyond awful. I won't get into it here, but please visit PETA if you want to know what they do.
Now everytime I go to brush my teeth with my Crest toothpaste (Proctor & Gamble), or wash my hair with my Sunsilk shampoo (Unilever), or moisturize aftewards with my Vaseline lotion (Unilever), I feel awful. Obviously I can't just throw out the products (I'm in radio! We aren't made of money!), but next time I definitely will be buying cruelty-free.
There's a list on the PETA website of companies that have declared themselves to be against animal testing, and there's a list of the big corporations that still test on animals.
Now, I'm not saying everyone should boycott the companies that do these tests, but I think if people start putting their dollars elsewhere and just be conscious of what's going on I think it will make a difference.
There's no reason to be killing millions of cats, dogs, primates, rabbits, and rodents every year.
Ok, speech over.