Cuppa Cruelty

© iStockPhoto / KevinDyer

Tea – it’s hard to imagine a substance that’s more harmless. It’s our national drink, it’s vegan – it’s the only thing that gets some of us through the day. What’s not to love?

How about a tea company that force-feeds rats tea, subjects them to surgery to bring their intestines onto their skin and then kills them? How about experimenters who infect piglets with disease-causing bacteria and infuse their dissected intestines with tea? Or a company that feeds rabbits unhealthy food to cause extreme hardening of the arteries and then administers tea to see what happens? That’s exactly what the company behind PG tips, Lyons and Lipton teas, has been doing so that it can make health claims about tea. The company conducts this research even though no regulations require it and even though studies of humans have already demonstrated tea’s likely health benefits. (After all, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world.)

In contrast, Tesco, Associated British Foods (which makes Twinings) and Typhoo have all confirmed to PETA that they don’t test any of their teas on animals. And earlier this year, PETA US announced that following two years of talks, it had persuaded the world’s largest maker of tea products, Japan’s ITO EN, to stop testing its products on animals. There’s no excuse whatsoever for using animals to test tea: Tesco, Typhoo and Twinings are ensuring there’s nothing bitter in their cups – the company behind PG tips, Lyons and Lipton should follow suit.

We’ve contacted the makers of PG tips to demand that it stop using animals to test its tea, and we need you to do the same. Please take action now to let the company know that there is no excuse for this abuse and that you won’t be buying its tea again until it ends the “cruel-tea” for good.