Over the past week you may have seen articles in the Daily Mail, METRO and The Independent exposing the big beauty brands giving up their Leaping Bunny Cruelty Free accreditation to enter the lucrative Chinese market.
The current situation in China is this – all cosmetic imports into the Chinese market have to be tested on animals before they are permitted to go on sale.
Brand owners have to fund these tests.
So, as things stand, the cosmetics companies operating within this market aren’t just agreeing to animal testing but are actively funding it.
What is bewildering is the way companies who are “actively against animal testing” are justifying this business decision as one mere exception for a market that is too big to forgo.
There are 700 million women in China – that’s a lot of dollar signs blurring these brands’ vision!
As far as I’m concerned, there’s no room for grey area in the black and white issue of animal testing.
If you’re funding animal testing anywhere in the world, or knowingly buying from suppliers who conduct animal tests, then you cannot make cruelty-free claims. It’s akin to greenwashing and incredibly misleading.
What are your thoughts on last week’s news?
Can you see where these brands are coming from? Or do you think that agreeing to animal testing is one business decision too far?