01/20/05 Ariel Washes Bloodily
Each year, over 38,000 animals in Europe and millions around the world are exposed to intensive suffering in discussible tests for cosmetic products or their ingredients. Procter & Gamble, with more than 250 brands, is responsible for tormenting and death of thousands of animals per year on which it tests cosmetics, cleansers and pets' food. In the name of profit of Procter & Gamble Ariel washes bloodily!
Ariel, Tide & Tix, Bonux, Lenor, Jar, Mr. Proper, Pantene Pro-V, Head & Shoulders, Wash & Go, Herbal Essences, Old Spice, Secret, Safeguard, Always, Alldays, Pampers, Blend-a-med, Blend-a-dent... the result: swellings, blindness, red coloring, infections, poisoning of internal organs, convulsions, vomiting, paralysis and various types of bleeding - from the nose, eyes and mouth, painful death in agony.
On Thursday, January 20, at 12 noon, Animal Friends will, by walking through Petar Preradovic Square with a shopping cart containing Ariel and other products of Procter & Gamble, be asking citizens of Zagreb to boycott the products of this multinational company, as well as products of other companies that test on animals. By carrying signs with clear messages, handing out leaflets and wearing red overalls, Animal Friends' activists will symbolically show how products of Procter & Gamble are based on suffering and blood of innocent animals.
Rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, mice and other animals are used for testing safety of the products; they are poisoned by cosmetics and cleansers. In a draize test, rabbits get poured various chemicals in their eyes and then the irritations of the eyes is studied for over 72 hours, often up to 7-18 days, which results with eyelids swellings, eye bleeding and blindness. In the skin irritation test, a concentrated chemical is put on a shaved back of an animal and the effects are studied for a couple of days. The wounds are terrible, pain is unbearable and animals don't get any painkillers. The so called LD50 is a toxicity test, the most painful and disreputable of all, which has, due to its nonsense and non scientific approach, been forbidden in Sweden and the UK. It starts with poisoning a certain number of animals by forced feeding, injections or inhalations, and the dosage of the poison gradually increases until 50 per cent of the animals die (in order to find the lethal dosage).
Legal obligation for testing products on animals does not exist - these tests protect only the producers and not the consumers. Until now over 8,000 cosmetic ingredients have been tested on animals, but the ethical companies dismiss the torture of animals by using various alternative methods for testing their products. Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium have already banned testing cosmetics on animals, and Denmark and Sweden have banned selling cosmetics that contain ingredients tested on animals. The European Parliament has adopted a law that will enter into force in 2009, which forbids most of the cosmetics tests on animals in the EU countries as well as selling cosmetics in the EU that have been tested on animals in other countries.
Cosmetic industry in Europe makes a profit of over 44 billion euros per year. Procter & Gamble currently has 16 products that earn over a billion dollars and another 10 products that earn somewhere in between 500 million and a billion dollars. Animal Friends are asking each individual to choose the products that are not tested on animals and boycott the ones that are, and by doing so, to show Procter & Gamble and other unethical producers that they won't tolerate torture and killing of animals because of profit.
