Friday, January 30, 2004
Oxford Eagle
Dear Editor:
While I don't have the money to buy advertising space in your
newspaper or sponsor frivolous beauty pageants, I can sleep with
a clean conscience. Can Allie Lamar? Can the city of Oxford?
This new beauty pageant is being sponsored by a company that practices
cruelty to animals in testing labs on a daily basis. What does
that say about our community? Do the good citizens of Yoknapatawpha
County want to be known for our rich literary traditions or our
support of animal abuse?
The animals being tortured in the name of product safety cannot
speak for themselves, and that is why I am writing you this letter.
Neither the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nor the Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC) requires cosmetic companies to
test either their ingredients or their finished products on animals,
and yet millions of animals are still lost to these tests every
single year, according to the National Anti-Vivisection Society
(NAS). Who knows how many of those animals are killed here in Oxford.
Does Avon Products, Inc. conduct animal tests? No. Does Estee
Lauder? No. Does Mary Kay Cosmetics? No. Does Revlon, Inc.? No.
Does Lamar Cosmetics? Yes!
Studies have shown that animal testing protects companies, not
consumers. Not one person who has ever purchased cosmetics manufactured
by Lamar Cosmetics has benefited from the inhumane tests conducted
by that company under the guise of public safety.
Are there alternatives to animal testing?
Yes. For starters, Lamar Cosmetics could easily scrap their "need" for
animal testing by simply taking advantage of the Cosmetic Ingredient
Review
(CIR), a program supported by the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance
Association (CTFA). Beyond that, Lamar Cosmetics could use any
of several cruelty-free testing procedures suggested by People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Lamar Cosmetics does not need to test their products on animals
and we should not promote Lamar Cosmetics until they accept that
truth and change their practices.
On behalf of all innocent animals, I call upon on my fellow caring
citizens to boycott the Yoknapatawpha County Literature Festival
Pageant and stop buying Lamar Cosmetics while the company continues
to promise beauty but deliver pain.
If Lamar cannot hear the voices of animals in pain, then perhaps
the company needs to feel pain until they change their ways.
Wendy Kullman
Oxford
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