Why I Consider Wet n Wild Cruelty Free
It's been a while since Wet n Wild dropped the bomb that they're selling in China. There was a huge outrage and everyone decided to boycott them. CF and non-CF people alike. Everyone seemed to agree that they were scum and left it at that. Personally, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I was so incredibly disappointed in them when I found out. Not only because they were no longer cruelty free, but because they had decided to blatantly lie to their customers about it. That's a huge no-no in my book. My thoughts didn't stop there. After consuming what felt like every article, every youtube video and every blog post I finally decided I needed to re-evaluate what I consider cruelty free.
If you have any knowledge about the labyrinth that is cruelty free beauty you probably know that as soon as a company decides to sell in China they are no longer considered cruelty free by most bloggers because the Chinese government can test any products on animals at any time if they wish to do so. They do both pre-market testing and post-market testing. A company can avoid the pre-market testing by producing their products domestically in China, but that's all the company itself can do.
The issue here is the post-market testing. Any company that sells in mainland China can potentially be subject to animal testing through their post-market testing policy. Even if they can avoid every single other test (the pre-market stuff), they can't be 100% certain their products won't be tested on animals after they hit the shelves. What a lot of cruelty free bloggers make it seem like (intentionally or unintentionally, I don't know) is that post-market testing happens regularly and for any reason. This is not the case as Knudsen & CRC reports. Apparently, there hasn't even been any post-market testing in years. The test only happens if a customer reports a product to the government (how often do you alert the FDA, or equivalent, because you had an alleric reaction to your bronzer?) and the government deems it necessary to test it. To my understanding they only deem it necessary very rarely, because it's an expensive and time-consuming thing to do and they're the ones paying for it.
To boycott brands who do their outmost to avoid animal testing (and whitdraw any and all products that could be subject to post-market animal testing) simply because they sell in China feels wrong. We want China to change their laws and we want the population of China to have access to safe and affordable makeup so why do we boycott the brands who are cruelty free by all other standards for something that may or may not happen? I get that we don't want any animals to come to harm, but post-market testing is such a rarity that I believe boycotting these brands does more harm than good. You are more than welcome to disagree with me on this point and I understand why you might, but I have done my research and I will update my list of brands that I consider cruelty free.
If you're interested in knowing more I highly suggest you watch Unnatural Vegan's video on this whole mess, because she can explain things a lot better than me.
And lastly, I just want to say that even if I consider Wet n Wild cruelty free, I will still avoid purchasing from them because I'm not over the moon about them lying to their customers about selling in China. I hope it was just them failing to update their employees about the change, but I doubt it.
Thank you for reading and please leave your toughts below! If you have any more information about this I'd love to know. If you simply just want to tell me I'm wrong, I welcome that as well but please include a reason why so I can educate myself!
If you have any knowledge about the labyrinth that is cruelty free beauty you probably know that as soon as a company decides to sell in China they are no longer considered cruelty free by most bloggers because the Chinese government can test any products on animals at any time if they wish to do so. They do both pre-market testing and post-market testing. A company can avoid the pre-market testing by producing their products domestically in China, but that's all the company itself can do.
The issue here is the post-market testing. Any company that sells in mainland China can potentially be subject to animal testing through their post-market testing policy. Even if they can avoid every single other test (the pre-market stuff), they can't be 100% certain their products won't be tested on animals after they hit the shelves. What a lot of cruelty free bloggers make it seem like (intentionally or unintentionally, I don't know) is that post-market testing happens regularly and for any reason. This is not the case as Knudsen & CRC reports. Apparently, there hasn't even been any post-market testing in years. The test only happens if a customer reports a product to the government (how often do you alert the FDA, or equivalent, because you had an alleric reaction to your bronzer?) and the government deems it necessary to test it. To my understanding they only deem it necessary very rarely, because it's an expensive and time-consuming thing to do and they're the ones paying for it.
To boycott brands who do their outmost to avoid animal testing (and whitdraw any and all products that could be subject to post-market animal testing) simply because they sell in China feels wrong. We want China to change their laws and we want the population of China to have access to safe and affordable makeup so why do we boycott the brands who are cruelty free by all other standards for something that may or may not happen? I get that we don't want any animals to come to harm, but post-market testing is such a rarity that I believe boycotting these brands does more harm than good. You are more than welcome to disagree with me on this point and I understand why you might, but I have done my research and I will update my list of brands that I consider cruelty free.
If you're interested in knowing more I highly suggest you watch Unnatural Vegan's video on this whole mess, because she can explain things a lot better than me.
And lastly, I just want to say that even if I consider Wet n Wild cruelty free, I will still avoid purchasing from them because I'm not over the moon about them lying to their customers about selling in China. I hope it was just them failing to update their employees about the change, but I doubt it.
Thank you for reading and please leave your toughts below! If you have any more information about this I'd love to know. If you simply just want to tell me I'm wrong, I welcome that as well but please include a reason why so I can educate myself!
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