When shopping, do you read ingredient lists found on the products you
buy? We’ve been trying to learn as much as we can about the composition
of the items we put in our shopping cart when we go shopping. Since we
avoid purchasing animal products, it makes sense that we would also
avoid any additives that may be animal-derived.
Of course, I’m careful about any lotions, detergents, soaps,
shampoos, toiletries, or makeup that I use. The publicity surrounding
mad cow disease and the prions that are the causative agent made me
realize that I was on the right track, since prions are proteins that
are not destroyed by heat as microorganisms are. Therefore, it stands to
reason that prions survive treatment in rendering plants where waste
from farms, restaurants, road kill, dead companion animals, etc. is
broken down or “rendered” into usable/saleable ingredients.
And since rendered products are found in makeup, you can understand
why I buy only from companies that I can be sure sell cosmetics with “no
animal ingredients.” It seems impossible not to eat a little of the
lipstick that I apply, and to take the chance of ingesting prions is
foolish to say the least!
I have met well meaning, but naïve, women who look at a cosmetic
label and say, “Look! Not tested on animals!” Yet they do not realize
that they are causing just as much or more harm to animals and
potentially to themselves by not buying from companies that sell makeup
that has no animal-derived ingredients.
If you are interested in learning about this important subject, I
recommend you get hold of a book called Animal Ingredients A to Z,
Third Edition, originally compiled by the E.G. Smith Collective.
For more information see:
http://all-creatures.org/book/r-animalingr.html
