**EDIT: After the debacle in China ans subsequent retraction, Urban Decay is being sold to L'oreal, a brand that no one believes is cruelty free. As of November 2012, Urban Decay will be a subsidiary of L'oreal. Officially and forever black listed.**
Another one
bites the dust! One of the last largest,
mainstream cruelty free companies, Urban Decay, has decided to direct sell to
China. This means their products do not
meet my standards as cruelty free nor Leaping Bunny’s standards. Urban Decay obviously expected a harsh and
massive response to this move and has posted their response
here. I have edited down the response below to
highlight what I see as important.
“Urban Decay is going to sell our products in China. Because
of China’s policies on animal testing, we know that this will not be a popular
decision with some of our loyal customers. But the decision is a thoughtful
one.
…
For those of you unfamiliar with China’s policies, the
sticking point is this: the Chinese government reserves the right to conduct
animal testing with cosmetic products before the products are approved for use
by Chinese citizens. The government has not told us if they have exercised this
right with our products. So, our brand
does not test on animals, but the Chinese government might conduct a one-time
test using our products. Do we like China’s policies? No…
…
we believe that
change cannot and will not happen by outside pressure alone in a closed market.
Change can only happen from within. When we enter the Chinese market, we will
do our part to help make those changes.
When we were considering expanding into China, a group of
marketing consultants told us to remove the section of our company history that
describes our crusade against animal testing. “It doesn’t mean anything to the Chinese beauty customer,” they
said. Of course, …The battleground for animal rights is now in China, and we
want to be there to encourage dialogue and provoke change.
…
Based on this, our belief is that both an outside force and
inside pressure for change can result in helping transform both the importance
of women and animal testing policies in China. And more importantly, we hope to
influence the perspective of the citizens on both of these issues.
Yes, we are a for-profit company. And yes, we would
eventually like to make money in China. But we don’t stand to turn a profit in China for quite a while,
partially because the market isn’t quite ready to sustain an untraditional brand
like ours. If it were only about the money, we would wait a few years. But our
foray into this market is also about participating in an amazing time of change
in China. We don’t like animal testing (and neither do the 13 dogs in our
office), but we are trying to change the world… even if it is one eye shadow at
a time! Sitting on the sidelines isn’t our style. We understand that you might
not like our decision, but we hope you can respect it.”
Urban Decay is loosing their Leaping Bunny and Peta symbols. They created the vegan symbol.
First let
me critique Urban Decay’s reasoning that because they are not commissioning the
animal testing, they are blameless. This
is completely faulty logic. If Urban
Decay is so committed to animal welfare (they have built a whole brand around
the phrase “we don’t animal test, how could anyone?) why are they even opening
themselves up to the possibility of animal testing of their products? Because they chose to direct sell to China, I
see this as choosing to animal test because they know this is a likely outcome
of their business relationship with China.
They could easily choose to sell only
in countries that do not reserve the right to animal test. Then they could sleep comfortably at night
knowing that they did not facilitate a relationship that will facilitate animal
testing, but rather that they have chosen to work with people/countries that do
not require them to dismantle their ethics and make them party to animal
testing.
Finally, the fact that UD states
this is the only way to start a cruelty free movement in China and that they
will not be making any money makes me physically ill. It is (pardon me) the biggest load of shit
someone has ever tried to force down my throat.
UD, obviously you will be making money and don’t try to state otherwise
because no one believes that at all.
Also once again your logic is flawed in thinking that abandoning your
animal rights stance will somehow convince others to join this cause. This baffles me completely.
If you can not tell, UD’s decision to
direct sell to China has elicited an emotional response from many cruelty free
and vegan shoppers. I never purchased
from Mary Kay and Avon, who also decided to direct sell to China, because they
stipulated “unless required by law” in their animal testing policy. I never trusted these companies from the
start.
But Urban Decay? I trusted them truly. They had built up an identity that rejected
animal testing and even clearly addressed the needs of their vegan shoppers
with their vegan “Marley Approved” paw print to clearly identify all vegan
products. Yes, they did have issues
labeling vegan products correctly at times, but I supposed this was due to bureaucratic
company issues. I’m sad for the animals,
I’m sad that I bought into UD’s branding which I mistook for authentic belief,
and I’m sad for the whole cruelty free movement to lose the last large cruelty company. From now on, I think I will mainly be
sticking to independent companies like Pumpkin and Poppy and other vegan makeup
lines available on etsy.
Kristy from veggiebeauty posted a great video on this whole situation and the state of animal testing and cosmetics at the moment. She discusses some alternative brands and what we should be looking for. Hopefully this can provide some extra guidance.
