Absolut Vodka,Chivas Regal Whiskey Owner End All Animal Tests After PETA US Talks

For Immediate Release:
10 September 2019

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]

ABSOLUT VODKA, CHIVAS REGAL WHISKEY OWNER END ALL ANIMAL TESTS AFTER PETA US TALKS

Pernod Ricard Adopts New Animal-Friendly Testing Policy, Requires 1,600 Suppliers to Do the Same, After PETA Push

London – Following discussions with PETA US, Pernod Ricard – the second-largest wine and spirits company in the world – has adopted a monumental new policy ending its previous support of animal experimentation, stating, “Pernod Ricard shall not fund, conduct, or commission any animal testing unless they are explicitly required by law.”

The policy applies to Pernod Ricard’s brands – including Absolut Vodka, Chivas Regal whisky, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Seagram’s Gin, Malibu Rum, Jacob’s Creek wine, and Kenwood wine – and also to the more than 1,600 ingredient suppliers that signed Pernod Ricard’s corporate social responsibility agreement.

From 1986 to 2010, Pernod Ricard conducted or provided products for animal experiments in which more than 1,000 small mammals were used. During these tests, experimenters fed rats alcohol, injected them with alcohol, forced them to breathe in alcohol vapour, stabbed needles in their eyes, deprived them of water, force-fed them rat and human faeces, cut off their heads, dissected them, and performed other procedures.

“Pernod Ricard’s compassionate decision means that the company and its suppliers will never again starve, poison, or kill gentle animals in voluntary experiments, which aren’t required by law and are irrelevant to human health,” says PETA Senior Projects and Science Policy Advisor Dr Julia Baines. “PETA is calling on companies still clinging to archaic animal tests to follow Pernod Ricard’s example and embrace modern, animal-free research methods.”

Pernod Ricard joins a growing list of major food and beverage companies – including Asahi Group Holdings, Barilla, The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, Hershey, House Foods, Kellogg, Kikkoman, Lipton, Ocean Spray, PepsiCo, POM Wonderful LLC, and Welch’s – that have stopped all animal tests after exposés by and discussions with PETA US.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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