Glaxo SmithKline (the amalgamation of SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome) and Procter and Gamble are my main targets here, but there are countless other companies who employ animal testing as a means to get their products on the market. There are numerous methods of testing products, most of them more accurate and definitive than animal testing, which is outdated, inconclusive, and unnecessary. Animal tests tell us, in short, absolutely nothing about the substance tested. Animals react in vastly different, sometimes even the opposite, ways to humans when exposed to various substances. Even from a purely selfish, what’s-best-for-the-all-important-human-race point of view, this is dangerous and irresponsible. Did you realise that for years it wasn’t known that cigarettes cause cancer, because, tested on rats, human carcinogens resulted in cancerous reactions in less than half of the rodents? The results would have been more accurate if the researchers had flipped a coin rather than elected to carelessly waste lives, and what’s more it wouldn’t have taken years and delayed RELEVANT research, which would have progressed the fight against cancer. Urethane is effective in treating human leukaemia, but causes cancer in mice. These are only two of countless examples, all of which add up to provide incontrovertible evidence that vivisectionists are nothing more than a pack of mercenary charlatans. If a company gets the results they want from an animal test, they claim it to be irrefutable proof of their product’s safety; however, if the test provokes an adverse reaction it is dismissed on the grounds that animal tests are useless anyway. Having done a certain number of animal tests on a product is considered an adequate evaluation of a product's safety. To quote a qualified doctor, Prof. Vernon Coleman: "...animals get different types of cancer to human beings, animals respond quite differently to drugs...researchers working with animals have held back medical progress and have been responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths."

Procter and Gamble use animal testing extensively, but refuse to comment publicly on their practices. Undercover videotaping in their labs has revealed gross misconduct, appalling cruelty, and horrific animal suffering on a huge scale.
P&G and GSK are major international corporations: it will take a lot of boycotters and demonstrators to really put them under pressure. This is only a short summary of what there is to know about the companies and the campaigns against them. Hopefully if you go to the P and G Kills and SHAC sites you'll be convinced to join the protesters and help to end their use of vivisection.

An (edited) list of Procter and Gamble products:

Cover Girl
Max Factor
Oil of Olay
Old Spice
Secret
Sure
Tampax
Always
Giorgio Beverly Hills
Hugo Boss
Head & Shoulders
Pantene Pro-V
Vidal Sassoon
Camay
Clearasil
Pringles(yeah, the crisps - everyone's all for boycotting P&G til they discover it means no more Pringles)
Sunny Delight
Crest Toothpaste
The Vicks Family of Cough/Cold Products: Sinex, VapoRub, VapoSteam, Vicks 44, Vitamin C Drops
Febreze
Swiffer
Bold
Bounce
Dreft
Tide


For more information, and a more comprehensive list, go to: P and G Kills

Glaxo SmithKline use Huntingdon Life Sciences, a notoriously cruel contract lab, to carry out their tests. Some of their better-known products include: Beecham’s Cold and Flu Remedies, Lucozade, Hedex, Panadeine, Panadol, Solpadeine, Nicorette, Andrews Antacid, Andrews Salts, Phillips Milk of Magnesia, Tums, Aquafresh, Aquafresh Flex, Macleans, Oxy, Horlicks, Ribena.

Other companies that test on animals:

Unilever:
HB icecream, Lipton, Knorr, Magnum icecream, Organics shampoo
Some of HLS's more well-known customers: Texaco, Shell, Roche pharmaceuticals, BASF (they make video tapes among other things), Eli Lilly, Du Pont (they make that Tefal non-stick cookware stuff)
For more information on Huntingdon Life Sciences and their customers, go to: Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty

For information on vivisection, email Cris Iles.