Global Campaign to Boycott Procter & Gamble

On Saturday 24 May 2003, over one hundred protests will be staged around the world urging consumers to boycott products such as Oil of Olay, Clairol, Pert, Pantene and Iams pet food until the manufacturer, Procter & Gamble, ceases testing its products on animals.

Procter & Gamble is at the centre of a global campaign by international animal advocacy organisations as the company regarded as the Œworld¹s worst offender¹ of animal product safety testing. It is believed Procter & Gamble has sustained millions of dollars in lost revenue since the international campaign was launched in 1996. Anti-cruelty activists around the world are using an array of modern campaign tools and consumer pressure techniques, including returning Procter & Gamble products for a full refund. Protests will be held in the USA, Great Britain, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the Czech Republic. Reasons for the campaign include:

o Procter & Gamble has aggressively lobbied against legislation to end animal testing of consumer products. A leaked document reveals the company secretly lobbied against a proposed European-wide ban on animal testing for cosmetics (see notes below). The company also lobbied to defeat a Bill before the California legislature that sought to prohibit the infamous Draize eye-irritancy test.

o Claims made by Procter & Gamble regarding their animal testing policy have been described by animal advocacy organisations as "evasive" and "misleading".

o Procter & Gamble are subject to a major investigation by Britain's Advertising Standards Authority following revelations of cruelty to cats and dogs in research for its Iams pet food brand, that contradicted claims made by the company (see notes below).

o Procter & Gamble spends more on advertising in seven days than it has done in eleven years on developing humane testing methods.

Gary Reese, spokesperson for New Zealand's largest animal rights organisation SAFE explains:

"Animals suffer and die in crude and unreliable tests performed by P&G for the sake of so-called "new, improved" cosmetics and toiletries. The bottom line is that Procter & Gamble is a multi-billion dollar corporation that continues to blind, poison and kill animals to test deodorants, laundry detergents and other products.

Meanwhile, more than 600 companies, including Estee Lauder, Amway, Revlon and The Body Shop, manufacture and develop products without testing them on animals.

SAFE is committed to participating in this global campaign as the best way to highlight and end these unnecessary tests. Most people in New Zealand would buy a Procter & Gamble product at some stage. We are urging them to simply check the small print and if its Procter & Gamble ­ don¹t buy it!"

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