Kellogg’s Ends Animal Testing After 65 Years

 The food giant Kellogg recently  announced that they will be stopping the use of animal testing for their  products, and officially changing their policy on the matter. The  company has used animals for testing purposes for the past 65 years to  establish questionable human health claims for its food products and  ingredients. Kellogg’s use of animal testing has been in the news since 2007, when  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) publicly asked the  company to stop the practice. 

In response to the initial criticism that  Kellogg received, the company said that they would stop testing on  animals by 2025. 

Luckily, ongoing negotiations with animal rights  activists have prompted Kellogg to stop the testing immediately. According to the company’s new “Animal Welfare Commitment”: “Kellogg does not conduct, fund,  support or condone the use of animal testing for food products or  ingredients” beyond what is explicitly require(d) by governmental  agencies for food safety or quality.”  

 The commitment also indicated that the company supports “replacing animal testing with other validated methods.” 

However, the announcement came with the caveat that testing will continue in circumstances where it is required by government.

 “Only when governmental agencies  explicitly require animal testing to demonstrate safety or quality are  studies conducted by accredited third-party facilities that follow  proper animal welfare guidelines. We do not maintain any testing  facilities,” the statement said.   

Kris Bahner, senior vice president of  global corporate affairs at Kellogg, insists that the company rarely  tested on animals in recent years, and that this new statement is merely  a reflection of “practices that have been in place for several years.” 

 “The overwhelming majority of the  Kellogg Company portfolio is plant-based. We had not included animal  testing in the Animal Welfare Commitment prior as the frequency of  testing is so rare, but understand reiterating our approach publicly is  helpful to stakeholders,” Bahner said in a statement to Battle Creek Enquirer. 

However PETA says that Kellogg was involved with at least 1273 animal experiments on rats and hamsters between 1995 to 2016.   According to PETA Vice President  Shalin Gala, Kellogg had no public policy on animal testing until just a  few months ago, when they released their Animal Welfare Commitment.  

“The global food industry is  recognizing that no marketing claim can possibly excuse force-feeding,  poisoning, suffocating, and killing gentle rats in cruel and deadly  tests. The Kellogg Company is no longer a cereal killer of animals in  deadly tests, and PETA applauds the company’s decision to embrace  superior, non-animal research methods,” Gala said in a statement. 

Kellogg joins a number of other major  multinational corporations that PETA has worked with to stop animal  testing, including The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills and Welch’s. It is estimated  that around 50–100 million vertebrate animals are used in experiments  annually. However, those figures do not include invertebrates such as  shrimp and fruit flie. 

PETA have now turned their attention  to the University of Delaware, where experimenter Tania Roth conducts  cruel tests on vulnerable, sensitive rats, claiming to study child  abuse. They have set up a petition so people can help with their campaign.