Icky Institutions: Unilever's response

Hi all:

Keeping you updated with the latest information directly from the horses' mouths: below is the response from Unilever, who are responsible for brands such as Axe, Dove, Suave, Sunsilk and Lever Brothers.

"We recognize the concern of organizations such as PETA and individuals such as you, with respect to this very complicated and complex issue.  Globally, Unilever is committed to the elimination of animal testing.  We would like to take this opportunity to outline our initiatives in this area and the significant progress we have made toward meeting this goal.

Our position is, and has historically been, that we do not test any finished products on animals except where required by government regulation.  In such cases, as part of our ongoing commitment to eliminate animal testing, we encourage the local authorities to change these regulations.  In addition, we do not use animal testing when there is an accepted alternative test or existing information available to evaluate the health impact and safety of our products.  In further pursuit of this goal, Unilever has committed a significant amount of time, effort and funding to developing acceptable, non-animal alternatives:

- Unilever currently spends approximately $4 million per year globally to develop novel risk assessment approaches to assure safety without animal testing, such as the development of biological and computer-based modeling techniques. We believe these technologies will help replace animal testing altogether.

- One of the major barriers to eliminating animal testing is the very deliberate pace at which government authorities approve such alternatives. In 2005, Unilever helped launch the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA).  The aim of this initiative by the European Commission and industry is to increase and coordinate efforts to significantly accelerate the rate at which alternatives are agreed to, validated and put into practice.  The organization communicates regularly with a mirror group that includes animal welfare organizations.  Its goal is to ensure that every opportunity is taken to refine, reduce and replace the use of animals.

- In the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, we continue to support the passage of legislation that promotes the elimination of animal testing through the development and acceptance of alternative methods.

As soon as non-animal alternatives are validated and accepted by government authorities, they are accepted by us along with the many companies and organizations with whom we collaborate.

We appreciate that you contacted us about this issue and we thank you for your comments."

You don't have to be cruel to be kind (someone needs to tell Unilever that),

GiGi