Is free from animal testing actually a reality or a clever marketing ploy?

It is only when you delve a little deeper into the claims of many well respected brands that the 'free from animal testing' claims can become a dubious claim.

Loop Hole in the Law

Of course we are not suggesting that any of these companies are doing anything wrong, but it is a loop hole in the law that makes them able to claim this credit.

Recently there has been a lot of press coverage on food branding, for example a pig raised in Europe in one of the cages, slaughtered and then processed in the UK into a pork pie can be claimed as a British product.

Many people are aware of the cruelty many European animals have suffered thanks to Jamie Oliver's recent press coverage so would be happy to buy a British Pork product in the knowledge that these animals had been well treated.  Little did they know that this product claiming to be from the UK actually originated in another country.

Only 5 years!

Similarly there is a legal loophole used by companies claiming their products are not tested on animals provided they or their ingredients had not been tested on animals for 5 years. Given that the time taken to carry out full laboratory testing and bring an ingredient to market is not much less than 5 years, many of these companies are able to use such ingredients whilst claiming on all their advertising and on labels "Not Tested on Animals".

Many of these companies are using a marketing ploy they are legally allowed to use but in reality their ethos and morals are firmly on the profiteering side and not on the animal welfare side.

Katharine Botanicals Ethos

At Katharine Botanicals we were not prepared to take this route, and we follow the line that not one product is  tested on animals and no ingredient that has been tested on animals is used.  This is in conformance with a new concept, which is using a cut-off date.

Since there is no way of proving that the substance has never been tested on animals in all history, an arbitrary date was set (in our case 1976) as a fixed cut-off date, since records were not required before then and therefore there could be no proof until after that date.

Uncaged - Protecting Animals

For more information about companies that are recommended or on the 'bad' list and why please visit Uncaged - Protecting Animals.  You may well be surprised by some of the well known companies who rest a lot of their marketing strategies on 'No animal Testing' that you find in the 'bad' list.

Katharine Botanicals products are produced ethically.