I’ll do the animal testing bit first which I find contradictory to their £100,000 donation to Cats Protection which will provide a million meals for unwanted cats. Purina’s website tells me that they provide grants and sponsorships in many areas of animal welfare. With respect to grants, they provide monetary donations to select pet welfare organisations that promote pet welfare. They consider requests for grants from “pet welfare organisations located within 50 miles of our St. Louis headquarters or one of our manufacturing locations”.
They answer the question “Do you test your products on animals?” They state that their development of products does not involve animal tests. But – and there is a but – they state that “all regulatory authorities rely on animal testing as part of the dossier to demonstrate that novel foods or foods that contain novel ingredients are safe for consumption. Therefore, Nestlé uses animal testing when authorisation to commercialise food with novel ingredients requires this type of testing”.
In short, to put it in simpler terms, they state that they do animal test when they are told to do so by the authorities. But do the authorities in any one area or state insist that Nestlé animal test? Perhaps the authorities state that they need to verify that their new ingredients are safe for human consumption. And in order to confirm that their products are safe they animal test. I don’t think the authorities insist on animal testing per se.
It should be noted that the above information comes from the Nestlé website today, June 23, 2022. I can recall about 13 years ago writing about Purina employing animal testing. It appears that they have moved away from animal testing over the intervening dozen years.
PETA have a page which lists those companies which have signed a PETA statement of assurance pledging that they do not conduct, contract out or fund animal testing. Nestlé Purina is NOT listed on this webpage although it does concern UK companies. That said, as I understand it, Nestlé has “sister companies” Nestlé UK & Ireland, and therefore, arguably, they are a UK company although their head offices are in the USA.
Also, there is a webpage dated February 13, 2019 (Rise for Animals) which states that “Purina has nearly 1,400 cats and dogs trapped in a medical experimentation facility in St Joseph, Missouri”. That information comes apparently from a report filed with USDA which admits this is the case.
To return to their Cats Protection donation, the cat charity tells us that Purina’s donation “forms part of the charity’s long-term partnership with pet care company Purina”. Cats Protection also states that there has been a rapid increase of 25% in the number of kittens handed over to its adoption centres in the first quarter of 2022. Of course, they greatly welcome the donation as they have thousands of cats and kittens to care for. Many of their cats require long-term veterinary care before they are ready to be adopted. This is expensive. They state: “It’s a mission that Cats Protection and Purina take very seriously, and Purina’s generous donation helps us to give so many of these cats a brighter future.”
Below are some more pages on cats.
