The list only includes companies that make cosmetics, personal-care products, or household-cleaning products. PETA’s Caring Consumer Project was founded to help consumers choose products that don’t contribute to animal suffering. No law requires that these types of products be tested on animals.

The list does not include companies that only manufacture products that are required by law to be tested on animals (e.g., pharmaceuticals, certain chemicals, etc.). While PETA opposes all tests on animals, consumer dollars are very powerful when regulations don’t require animal tests. Nonetheless, it is important to let companies that are required to test on animals know that it is their responsibility to convince the regulatory agencies that there are better ways.

All companies that are included on PETA’s cruelty-free list have signed PETA’s statement of assurance or provided a statement verifying that neither they nor their ingredient suppliers conduct or commission any animal tests on ingredients, formulations, or finished products.

Company representatives interested in having their company’s name added to our cruelty-free list(s) must complete a short questionnaire and sign a statement of assurance verifying that they (and their ingredients suppliers) do not conduct or commission any animal tests on ingredients, formulations, or finished products and that they pledge not to do so in the future. Upon receipt of these completed documents, PETA will add qualifying companies to our pocket-sized Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide and our online searchable database of cruelty-free companies.

Once certified as cruelty-free, companies will have the opportunity to license our cruelty-free bunny logo. We continually hear from consumers who want to be able to identify cruelty-free products at a glance while shopping, and the use of our logo is the perfect way to reach them. For a one-time licensing fee of just $100, our logo can be used on companies’ products, literature, in-store displays, and websites. To meet individual design needs, the logo may be used in any color combination or in black and white. For companies that sell an entirely vegan product line, a version that reads, “Cruelty-Free and Vegan,” is also available.

For more information or to request the necessary paperwork, please e-mail CaringConsumer@peta.org.

To a certain extent, the statement of assurance is a matter of trust. However, companies are putting their integrity on the line when they respond to consumers. A company that has publicly announced an end to its animal tests and states in writing that it doesn’t test on animals would face a public relations disaster (and potential consumer fraud lawsuits) if it were caught testing on animals. Companies are well aware that consumers are serious about the issue of animal testing, and they know that it would ruin the public’s confidence in their products if consumers discovered that companies were being dishonest about their animal testing policies.

Labels can be deceiving, so be careful. No specific laws exist regarding cruelty-free labeling of products, so companies can take liberties. While it is unlikely that a company would put blatantly false information about its animal testing practices on its products, the statements that it does make might not be fully informative and might indeed mislead consumers. Please refer to PETA’s cruelty-free lists for companies that have met our stringent “no animal testing” standards.

Many companies that do test on animals have some cruelty-free products, but we must boycott all the products of such companies in order to pressure them into stopping all animal tests. If the label on a company’s product says that it is not tested on animals and the company isn’t on either of PETA’s lists, please share the company’s contact information with PETA so that we can formally inquire about the company’s animal testing policy. Likewise, if you communicate with a company that claims to be cruelty-free but is not on our list, please ask for a statement in writing and send a copy of the statement to PETA. We will communicate with the company to see if it meets all our cruelty-free criteria. Meanwhile, PETA recommends purchasing products made only by companies on our “Don’t Test” list.

Some companies are not educated about or sensitive to the suffering of animals in the production of certain products that do not involve the actual slaughter of animals. PETA attempts to educate these companies, but some have persisted in inaccurately labeling their products as free of animal ingredients even though it is a fact that honey, lanolin, etc., are animal products. Our advice is always to read the entire label before believing such a statement, and we encourage you to voice your complaint to these companies as well. For our list of “Animal Ingredients and Their Alternatives,” please visit PETA.org/living/vegetarian-living/animal-ingredient-guide.aspx. Please also look for the “cruelty-free and vegan” version of PETA’s bunny logo.

PETA’s online “Do Test” and “Don’t Test” lists are updated frequently to reflect additions (e.g., if we are informed of a new company’s policy prohibiting animal testing), deletions (e.g., if a company that doesn’t test on animals is purchased by an animal testing company or if a company goes out of business), changes in contact information, etc.

PETA’s printed version of the Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide is updated approximately twice a year and is based on the most current information available at the time of printing. Companies’ animal testing policies can change after any given edition is printed. PETA reserves the right to choose which companies will be included, based on companies’ policies. Inclusion on any list is not an endorsement by PETA of a company or any of its products. Please contact PETA if you have any questions about the status of listed companies or if you know the address of a company that is not listed.

The following companies either test on animals or pay a laboratory to conduct tests on animals. Those marked with a diamond are currently observing a moratorium on (i.e., current suspension of) animal testing. Please encourage them to announce a permanent ban. Listed in parentheses are examples of products manufactured by either the company listed or, if applicable, its parent company. For a complete listing of products manufactured by a company on this list, please visit the company’s website or contact the company directly for more information. Companies on this list may manufacture individual lines of products that have not been tested on animals. They have not, however, eliminated animal testing from their entire line of cosmetics and household products.

Although animal testing of pharmaceuticals and certain chemicals is still mandated by law, the arguments against using animals in cosmetics testing are still valid when applied to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. These industries are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, respectively, and it is the responsibility of the companies that kill animals in order to bring their products to market to convince the regulatory agencies that there is a better way to determine product safety. PETA is actively working on this front by funding development and validation of non-animal test methods and providing input through our involvement on government advisory committees at both the national and international levels. Companies often resist progress and, instead of using human-relevant non-animal tests, choose to use animal tests because their results can be manipulated. Please let companies know how you feel about this—consumers have considerable influence on company policy!

“Working for Regulatory Change” is used to recognize companies that test on animals only when required by law, that are completely transparent with PETA about which animal tests they conduct and why, and that are actively working to promote development and validation of non-animal methods.