The short answer: No, Dove is not entirely cruelty free.
The long answer: Dove is a personal care brand that was established in 1957. It first sold its revolutionary beauty cleansing bar, and gradually expanded to moisturising body washes, body creams, and even a baby-friendly category. It is currently owned by Unilever, which also produces and distributes Vaseline and TRESemmé.
On its website, Dove claims, “Dove does not test on animals. For over 30 years, we’ve used multiple alternative, non-animal approaches to test the safety of our products and ingredients. We have removed all permissions for testing of our products by governments on our behalf.
We are excited to announce that Dove has been certified as cruelty-free by PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies Program. And now our products are entitled to carry PETA’s cruelty-free logo from PETA, something we are phasing in across all our packs progressively from next year. Our parent company, Unilever, has announced that it supports calls for a global ban on animal testing, similar to the existing EU ban.”
Despite its claims, Cruelty Free Kitty and Cruelty Free Guide report that Dove is being sold in China. This means that the brand is subjected to China’s laws, which include testing beauty products on animals whenever the need arises (ie. when a customer files a complaint). Cruelty Free Guide states that Dove has started manufacturing products in China so that they can eliminate the need for testing imported items. But the fact remains, Dove must comply with China’s animal testing regulations to be able to sell in that particular country. Therefore, they cannot be considered completely cruelty free.
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