Victory! Unilever Commits to Ending Animal Experimentation for Tea

by Michelle Hodkin · 2011-01-31 07:02:00 UTC
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After receiving over 1,100 emails from Change.org members, it looks like Lipton lovers can now drink easy: as of this month, Lipton's parent company, Unilever, issued a press release, stating that it is "committing to no animal testing for our tea and tea-based beverages, with immediate effect."

The company says the commitment is part of their "leadership" in environmental sustainability and ethical sourcing of their teas, but the announcement comes after a December report from the United Kingdom's People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA UK), stating that tea companies PG tips, Lipton and Lyons had been testing their products on animals in some pretty gruesome experiments that were decidedly not "100% natural."

PETA UK claimed that rabbits were fed a diet high in fat to increase cholesterol levels to harden their arteries before they were fed tea in their water, to demonstrate that if the levels decreased, they could market their product as having health benefits. Mice were bred with severe bowel inflammation problems, and then fed tea to see if it helped. And piglets were infected with E. Coli, to give them diarrhea, and test whether ingesting tea might provide them "health benefits," too.

Unilever, the parent company of tea makers Lipton, PG Tips, and Lyons, did not respond to a statement on PETA UK's findings. But the proximity of that report and this new press release does seem to indicate that the report wasn't far off the mark.

Thanks to PETA and Change.org members, however, Unilever's commitment to avoid animal testing for all of their teas and tea-based beverages means that gratuitous experiments for the sake of your tea and Unilever's profits are now a thing of the past.

Photo credit: ToOb

Michelle Hodkin is an author, a lawyer, and a longtime advocate for animals.
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