Memories

When I think back to my road to becoming enviromentally aware, animal friendly, and in love with all things natural, I realize my journey didn't start this year it started many moons ago. I remember shopping with my childhood bestfriend, Heather, when we were young. I'm not entirely sure how old, but it was before either of us could drive. Heather always had crazy ideas. She danced freely, loved independently and with out borders, and well most everything about her is unique, even the way she taught me to shop. Well we were in some store, lets cal it walmart, and we were probably arguing about what deodarants smelled better or which soaps were better for your skin. As we argued in this section of the store, she turned over the package she was holding, so I did the same. In my head I was ready for the competition, I thought she wanted to see the ingrediants and compare them. I was wrong, as soon as I turned my package over, she put hers back on the shelf and went to the next item. I asked her what she was looking for, she was looking for the words 'proctor and gamble'. She said if it had those words, she didn't want to buy the item. I asked her why and she explained to me that this company was a major sponsor in animal testing. She wanted to buy a creulty free product.

I don't think that before that moment I had really thought about the items I used. I didn't even realize that shampoos or toothpastes may have been used on an innocent kitty or puppy to get approved for me to use. Ever since that moment, I always turn the items around looking to see if it says not tested on animals or I look for the leaping bunny symbol which tends to mean the product is vegan as well as not tested on animals.Its strange how certain people set the pace for the rest of your life, how one event can effect you for forever and influence even the smallest of habits, my consumer habit.

I disagree with animal testing. If you have to test it to see if its going to burn someones skin off you probably shouldn't be using that dangerous chemical. Whats wrong with using natural ingredents, ones we have know about and have cleaned ourselves, our homes, prettied up our faces with for the last few thousand years? This new obsession with better feeling hair (chemicals killing your cells, in order to give the illusion of soft hair) or softer skin (aluminum entering you pores, opening them to give the illusion of soft skin) seems very shallow to me.



So if you are at all interested in finding out what products are not tested on animals visit leapingbunny.org. They have a list of make-up, household products, hair care, and body care vendors that are all animal cruelty free.