Let The Co-operative know if you disagree with its policy to support animal-testing health charities like the British Heart Foundation (BHF). Earlier this year, we wrote to the Co-operative following supporter concern about a promotion that donated money to the BHF for every copy of The Sun newspaper customers bought in-store. The BHF is well-known for its invasive and lethal animal experiments.
The Co-operative’s ethical policy excludes animal testing for cosmetics and household products and its own-brand products are BUAV approved. However, that compassion doesn’t appear to extend to animals used for medical experiments. The Cooperative told us that customer surveys indicate that customers don’t want them to stop supporting animal experiments for medical research. So we’ve asked to see the evidence and we await their response. It is vital that for opinion surveys to be meaningful, customers are given the whole picture so that they know you can still support life-saving medical research but without animal experiments.
We believe that many people shop at the Co-operative because they are ethical consumers who, if given a choice, would not wish their money to contribute to laboratory animal suffering. Currently, customers may be donating to such charities unaware that they are supporting animal experiments because the Co-operative does not reveal when a charity it supports is an animal-tester. Not only is support for animal experiments unnecessary, but it also appears to contradict the spirit of the Co-operative’s stated Customer Right To Know Policy which “is committed to providing consumers with all the information they need to make informed purchasing choices about the goods and services we supply.” We believe that should apply to all animal testing and anything less is a Co-op cop-out.
Click here to politely encourage the Co-operative to make a Think Before You Give pledge – stop supporting animal-testing charities or go at least half-way and give customers an animal-friendly alternative charity to choose instead. There are so many great charities out there conducting or funding life-saving medical research but without animal experiments – including the Dr Hadwen Trust – they really don’t need to be supporting animal suffering. You can also highlight your concern in this Ethical Policy Questionnaire – scroll down to “member consultation” to flag up this issue.