Brands that Test on Animals

Globally, hundreds of millions of mice, fish, birds and other animals are used each year to test the safety and impact of both drugs and consumer products. 

In Great Britain alone 2.7 million experiments involving animals were conducted in 2022. 

Dogs, primates, cats, mice, horses, rabbits, fish, reptiles and rats are all used in animal experiments in the UK.

Why do companies test on animals?

Companies say that they use animal testing of cosmetics and household products to show the safety of both the ingredients and the end-product. 

Most cosmetics and many household cleaning brands have ditched animal testing of finished products in recent years. However, lots of companies still use ingredients that are being tested on animals. While virtually all ingredients – even water – have been tested on animals in the past, some companies also fund ongoing testing through the ingredients they buy.

Unfortunately, demand for animal testing is primarily driven by countries’ safety and environmental regulations. For a product or ingredient to be sold on a given market (for example in the EU), the company must prove that it is safe. In some instances and places, the law states that this must be done through animal tests.

You can find out more about this in the EU through our article on a key regulation known as REACH.

Which industries test on animals?

Animal testing is most commonly associated with the cosmetics, household cleaning and pharmaceutical industries. However, many other sectors are also linked in animal testing – particularly those using potentially toxic chemicals or which make health claims about their products.

As we explore later in this article, companies involved in making food and beverages, pets’ food and even paint are linked to animal testing. 

Which cosmetic brands test on animals?

Few well-known cosmetics brands test their finished products on animals – partly driven by bans in regions like the EU and the UK. Since 2013, in the EU, cosmetics companies have also been banned from using recently animal-tested ingredients. However, following Brexit, a loophole now exists in UK laws and such testing has been going on since 2019.

In other countries, animal testing for cosmetics is much more common, so Ethical Consumer rates all brands in its health & beauty guides for their approach in all countries where they operate.

Well-known cosmetic and toiletry brands owned by companies linked to animal testing include:

• No7 (owned by Boots)
• Head & Shoulders and Herbal Essences (owned by Procter and Gamble)
• Dove (owned by Unilever)

Mainstream companies may own one or two cruelty-free brands, while continuing to have links to animal testing for others. For example, KVD Beauty is vegan and cruelty-free, but it is owned by the cosmetic giant LVMH, which includes brands such as Benefit and Guerlain. While LVMH publicly says it has a “no animal testing” policy, in 2023 the company told Ethical Consumer that its products were tested on animals in China for “registration purposes”. “When such tests are carried out, they are conducted solely by the Chinese authorities without the brands’ involvement”, the company said.

Ethical Consumer’s ratings look at the entire group of brands, to help you to avoid buying cruelty-free products owned by companies that test on animals. 

Which household cleaning brands test on animals?

Unfortunately, animal testing in the area of household products remains even more common. The testing of finished products has been banned in the UK since 2015, but ingredients can still be tested on animals.

The following well-known companies all still have links to animal testing, often to fulfil legal requirements in markets where they choose to sell their products:

• Procter & Gamble: owner of Flash, Microban, Fairy, Ariel, Bold, Daz, Lenor
• SC Johnson & Son: owner of Pledge, Mr Muscle, Method, Ecover
• Unilever: owner of Cif, Domestos, Persil, Comfort, Surf
• Reckitt Benckiser: owner of Vanish, Dettol, Cillit Bang

As with cosmetics, some of these companies own specific brands marketed as cruelty-free.

Ecover and Method, for example, were long considered leading ethical options in part for their no-animal testing policies. But in 2018, the brands were purchased by multinational SC Johnson, which continues to have links to testing on animals. As a result, animal advocacy group Nature Watch Foundation calls for a boycott of both Ecover and Method. 

Which pharmaceutical companies test on animals?

Animal testing is still pretty much ubiquitous in the pharmaceutical industry. The vast majority of pharma companies – from Pfizer to Bayer – will be linked to animal testing.

Lots of countries still require animal testing of drugs before they are put on the market, although some countries have moved away from such regulations in recent years. For example, in 2023, the U.S. ended requirements for new medicines to be tested on animals before human testing.

More and more alternatives are being developed that enable safety testing through alternative methods. Breakthrough techniques range from advanced computer modelling to "organs on a chip” – tiny microchips that can mimic the impact of drugs on organs’ function.

A growing number of scientists argue that these alternatives are more accurate than animal testing – as an animal’s physiology is so different to humans. 

Food and beverage companies and animal testing

Some food and beverage companies test on animals in order to back up health claims about their products, for example about cholesterol reduction or gut health.

For example, dairy company Danone, which owns brands including Alpro, Provamel, Evian, and Volvic, states, “Animal research may be necessary upon requirement of scientific authorities for regulatory approvals, special foods with medical purposes, for safety and suitability purpose of certain foods for vulnerable populations, and for specific research in the field of health, diagnoses, prevention or treatment of certain diseases."

If you want to avoid these brands, animal rights group PETA runs a website called ‘Eat Without Experiments’, which lists food and beverage companies and their stance on animal testing. Those said to “support animal testing” range from chocolate company Mondelez, which owns Cadbury and Toblerone, to Kraft Heinz, owner of Heinz baked beans.

Pet food and animal testing

Pet food companies also often conduct safety and taste tests on animals – including in some cases on captive animals in laboratories.

Animal rights organisation PETA has a list of companies that have stated they do not test on captive animals during the development, manufacturing, testing or marketing of products. These include the brands:

• Ami
• MPM Products Limited (Applaws and Encore)
• Pooch & Mutt
• Scrumbles
• Vegeco (Benevo)
• Yarrah.

Our guides to cat food and dog food have more about these brands.

Paint and animal testing

Animal testing is common in other sectors that rely on potentially toxic chemicals, meaning that even paint companies may be involved in animal testing. Azko Nobel (owner of Albal, Astral and other brands) and PPG (which owns Johnstone’s trade) for example both use animal testing.

How to avoid companies that test on animals

1. Use Ethical Consumer’s handy shopping guides

Ethical Consumer rates and ranks companies across their ethics, including animal testing. We review the policies companies have in place to ensure their products are cruelty-free, and always list companies that do not use animal tested products or ingredients – as well as those to avoid.

Our ratings look at company groups as a whole, so you won’t be buying an ‘ethical’ or cruelty-free brand with a parent that tests on animals.

We have over 100 shopping guides available, from batteries to vitamins.

2) Use the Compassionate Shopping Guide to check your favourite brands

Advocacy group Naturewatch Foundation runs a website called the Compassionate Shopping Guide, which endorses brands with no ties to animal testing. Brands can only be listed on the website if the whole company is cruelty-free – meaning that you won’t end up buying from a brand only to find out that some of the money is going to an owner involved in animal testing.

PETA also runs several websites tracking whether companies are cruelty-free. Their Beauty without Bunnies website covers more than 6,000 health and beauty and cleaning brands, while Eat Without Experiments includes food and beverage brands. However, as we cover in our article on cruelty-free and animal testing certifications, Peta's endorsement isn’t as robust as Compassionate Shopping or Leaping Bunny approval.

3) Look for Leaping Bunny’s Cruelty-Free Certification

The Leaping Bunny certification – run by advocacy group Cruelty-Free International – is another great option for finding brands that are not linked to animal testing. The certification ensures robust auditing of suppliers and ingredient manufacturers to check that they understand the non-animal testing requirements.

However, as we note in our article on cruelty-free and animal testing certifications, certification under this scheme does not mean a product is vegan, as it can still have animal ingredients like lanolin.

Other certification schemes from The Vegan Society, the Vegetarian Society and PETA all also consider animal testing, but as we explore in our article on animal testing certification, they don’t quite match up to Leaping Bunny standards. 

4) Support organisations campaigning for animal-free testing

You can also support organisations that actively fund and campaign for alternative methods of testing, such as the charity Animal Free Research. Its scientific research grants produce viable alternative testing methods. 

What can brands do to end animal testing? 

Companies can introduce strong policies prohibiting the use of animal testing in their supply chains. Policies should ban the use of animal testing for their finished products, and also outline something called a ‘Fixed Cut of Date’. Companies choose a date beyond which no ingredients have been tested on animals. While most ingredients will have been tested on animals at some point in the past, this means that the company will not fund recent or ongoing animal testing.

Many of the strongest brands choose to get an ethical accreditation to prove their commitment to end animal testing. Leaping Bunny is the strongest option for this, as we explain in our article on cruelty-free certifications.

Regulatory change will be crucial to end animal testing, so companies can also advocate to their MPs or those in government to ensure that laws do not require animal testing and to end loopholes in the UK which have allowed animal testing of cosmetic ingredients since Brexit.