AAVS recently assumed responsibility over leading the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC), which manages the Leaping Bunny Program.
Formed in 1996 by AAVS and six other animal advocacy organizations, the CCIC works with companies to verify the elimination of all new animal testing from their
products and promote the use of an international 'leaping bunny' product logo that is easily recognizable for consumers seeking trust-worthy, animal-friendly products.
AAVS only lists companies that have joined the Leaping Bunny Program in its Compassionate Shopping Guide, giving consumers confidence in the cruelty-free products they are buying.
Request a free Guide! Or view and print our pocket-sized Compassionate Shopping Guide in Acrobat PDF format:
Product Testing on Animals
Every year, millions of animals, mostly rabbits, mice, and rats, are subject to
tests that assess the safety of personal care and household products. However,
there is no law that specifically requires that animals be used as human models
to test personal care products such as soap, cosmetics, or deodorant and household
products such as floor cleaner or laundry detergent, and neither the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration or the Consumer Product Safety Commission require companies to
use animal tests to prove that their ingredients and finished products are safe.
Furthermore, reactions to the exposure of these products vary among species, making
it difficult to extract data from animal tests and apply them to situations in which
humans are exposed.
Additionally, there is no ethical justification for the use of animals in testing the effects of personal care and household
items. The Draize eye irritancy test, for example, subjects animals, usually rabbits, to procedures where they are
restrained and a test substance is placed into one of each animals' eyes, with the opposite eye serving as the control.
During the experiment, little veterinary care is given and the use of topical anesthetics is rare. The animalsą eyes are
evaluated for up to three weeks to gauge ocular changes, including damage to their eyelids, conjunctiva, iris, and cornea,
and the animals are likely killed upon completion of the experiment. Other toxicity tests include the Draize skin irritancy
test, which is similar to the Draize eye test, only done on shaved skin, and acute toxicity tests, also called the LD50
and LD100, which involve the poisoning of animals until half or all the test subjects die. While consumers do deserve
safe products, animal tests such as these have never been subjected to rigorous scientific testing to assess their
ability to predict human safety yet are readily accepted, having never been validated.
Be confident about your cruelty-free choices.
Look for the leaping bunny logo!
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