Today voting has officially opened for our Cruelty Free NZ 2023 Awards! An awards system set up to further promote the genuinely cruelty-free companies that are helping pave the way to a fully cruelty-free Aotearoa.

The best part is that the winners are picked by you. You get to vote for your favourite cruelty-free brand featured in our Cruelty Free Guide.

The top three companies with the most votes will win!‍

The winners will receive recognition for producing popular products that are 100% free from animal testing by being named official winners of our  Cruelty Free NZ Awards 2023. They will also be gifted one of our beautiful Cruelty Free NZ trophies.‍

Rules:

• Voting will be open from today (the 13th of March 2023) until midnight on the 27th of March 2023.
• Only companies featured in our Cruelty Free Guide are eligible to win. 
• You can only vote once 

Why our Cruelty Free NZ Awards are important: 

Testing cosmetics on animals is illegal in New Zealand, but cosmetics tested on animals can still be imported from overseas and sold in NZ. The rules also do not apply to household and other products such as washing powder.

Horrific things have been done to animals for testing cosmetics and household products. It is estimated that globally around 500,000 animals suffer and die just for cosmetics each year. 

The types of tests animals are subject to for cosmetics are gruesome. They include:

• Force-feeding animals substances, to assess what negative effects it might have on that animal. They may experience diarrhoea, convulsions, bleeding from the mouth, seizures, paralysis, and death.
• Applying substances to the skin of animals. Sometimes enough is applied to kill the animal via its toxic effects within two weeks.
• Forcing animals to inhale substances. They may experience bleeding of the nose, convulsions, paralysis, and seizures before death.
• Dropping substances into the eyes of animals (usually rabbits). Their eyes may show signs of redness, bleeding, ulcers, blindness and other signs of damage.
• And so much more!

This is completely unnecessary! Many companies are choosing to skip animal testing altogether – like all the companies in our Cruelty Free Guide.

The companies doing better and ensuring that their products aren't used in cruel and unreliable animal tests deserve our praise. They are proving that amazing, high-quality products can be produced without harming animals. Our annual Cruelty Free NZ Awards provide an important opportunity to promote these companies and encourage more people to use their consumer power to help #endanimaltesting!