What are you going to do about it?

By now, everyone on the Internet has oohed and aahed and laughed and cried over the video of the lab chimps seeing sunlight for the first time. In case you missed it:



Most people watched that video and thought "Oh, how sad. I wish we could free all the chimps, but there's nothing I can do about it." Fortunately, that's not true. There's a really easy way to help free the chimps: stop using products tested on animals.

I don't mean your cancer medication or your antibiotics. I mean your shampoo and your bathroom cleaner. Your dental floss. Your disposable razors. Your chocolate (yes, chocolate).

I'm not gonna lie: this can get a little tricky at times, depending on how strict you want to be. For example, Toms of Maine doesn't test on animals. But Colgate-Palmolive partially owns ToM and they do. So every time you buy a ToM product, some of your cash is going to fund C-P's animal testing. BUT every time you buy a ToM product, you're also telling C-P you're willing to spend a little more for a product that hasn't been tested on animals. My personal preference is to buy products that aren't in any way related to animal testing (I'm enjoying Jason's toothpaste at the moment), but I'm a spoiled brat living in New York (though I think every Whole Foods carries some fully cruelty free products and there's currently a coupon going around the Internet to get your stuff half price).

One easy thing to do is look for one of the following logos on packaging:

If you see one of those, odds are good no one's had anything jabbed in their eyes so you can have thicker, shinier hair. Just saying it without the logo is good too. If, on a product or website, they have a whole paragraph explaining that they don't test on animals "except when necessary" or some other such balls, someone, somewhere is being tortured so your toilet can glisten.

PETA keeps two lists: companies that do test on animals, and companies that don't. Take that second list with a grain of salt, though, because it includes brands like ToM that don't test but are owned by ones that do. It's useful in a pinch, but if you've got the time, a bit of Googling will tell you what you want to know. Or if you're lazy, ask me and I'll Google it for you. Seriously. Help me help you.

If we do this, maybe the next video will be of hundreds of chimps, rabbits, beagles, rats, mice and cats being released and adopted because the labs have been shut down once and for all.