The company that makes PG Tips has announced an end to testing of its teas on animals.
Unilever has made the decision partly in response to an emerging campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), which has been threatening a boycott of Unilever brands under the slogan ‘Crueltea’. As a first move, it had recently co-ordinated the sending of 40,000 emails to Unilever from its supporters.
Animal welfare activists have objected to experiments carried out by Unilever on pigs, rabbits and rats to try to establish the health benefits of drinking tea.
Unilever said: ‘We have an ongoing dialogue with consumers and NGOs, including Peta, and that dialogue suggested to us that we [should] consider whether our position on animal testing was consistent with the leadership role we have taken in other areas such as environmental sustainability and ethical sourcing of tea. We have done a very limited amount of testing of tea ingredients on animals when no other alternative method was available. This will stop now.’ Peta welcomed the decision.
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