Cruelty-Free: Pocket Guides
- Coalition for Consumer Information’s Compassionate Shopping Guide
to print guide, click here. - Caring Consumer’s Guide for Kind Living
to print guide, click here. - “Be Nice to Bunnies” iPhone application
For those of you with iPhones, you can have the added convenience of an up-to-date reference literally in the palm of your hand. The next time you’re shopping, use the following iPhone app to check up on products before adding them to your cart:
I leave you for now with the following thought: Making more animal-friendly choices when it comes to your everyday products can be an adventure… without driving yourself (and everyone around you) crazy. Changing just one item in your household to a product that is cruelty-free is all it takes to begin. And as you discover new products, cruelty-free favorites of your own, I encourage you to share your finds with family and friends.
Check back with me mid-October before you buy all the Halloween candy! I’ll be posting a blog with suggestions for cruelty-free sweets and treats.
Cruelty-Free: What About Wool?
Cruelty-Free: Shoes
In my closet, you’ll find:
Flats and Wedges:
Novacas
Vegetarian Shoes
Madden Girl, by Steve Madden
Boots:
Te Casan by Natalie Portman
All my boots — high heels, low heels, ankle-high, knee-high– are from Natalie Portman’s collection. Alas, Te Casan in SoHo closed its doors, and so the limited collection has become even more limited. However, I’ve spotted a few styles still available at Endless.com. And — lucky you! –it looks like they’re all discounted by as much as 50%!
Heels/Pumps:
I don’t wear heels very often, but we all need a couple pairs of dressy shoes. In addition to my Natalie Portman heels, I’ve discovered Olsen Haus, which has some great designs for when you’re looking to make more of a statement with your feet. Stella McCartney has some great vegan shoes, too, if you don’t mind the price tag.
Sneakers:
Macbeth (as featured in last year’s blog)
Simple (eco-friendly, hemp)
New Balance (running shoes)
Flip-Flops:
J Crew (skinny wedge style)
Splaff (soles made from recycled race-car tires; straps made from bicycle inner tube)
Buyer Beware: When you’re shopping at a store that is not specifically vegan, look for “Made from All Man-Made Materials” inside the shoes. Just because a shoe is fabric (black satin heels seem like they’d be animal-friendly) doesn’t mean the sole isn’t still made of leather! You want to make sure the shoe has a synthetic upper and sole.
Note to Birkenstock Lovers: their “Birko-Flor” sandals are cruelty-free
Cruelty-Free: Handbags & Wallets
- Manhattan Portage: This company is known for its old-school messenger bag, and I’m a loyal fan. Most of the time, I carry the classic “DJ” in black. Simple, understated, durable… and when you throw it in the washing machine, it comes out looking like new! What more could you ask for in your day-to-day bag? I love it so much, I also have one in orange with a reflective stripe, and a larger messenger bag in black with a reflective stripe that I used as a book bag while in grad school and now use when I need to move with my Macbook. My latest Manhattan Portage is just perfect for when I’m on the go and feel like keepin’ it light: the “East Village” mini-bag is ideal at an ideal price (just $29).
- Matt & Nat: The Gucci of vegan bags and wallets, but not quite as expensive. As I mentioned, I don’t carry around a handbag too often; but when I do, I have my Matt and Nat bags. They’re fashionable and high quality. This product line offers a variety of textures as well as styles. My “streamline” brown bag has a smooth faux-leather finish, while my black bag has a grainier look. I’ve got my eye on a “Japanese paper” design for the next time I make a purchase. I also carry a Matt and Nat wallet most of the time.
- Escama: For dressy occasions, I have a little fun by carrying my “chica rosa” made from over 200 post-consumer recycled soda-can tabs. Guaranteed conversation piece!
- GG2G: My tote bag made from recycled billboard material. Each tote made by this company, naturally, is unique and has brilliant splashes of color.
- Tinymeat: Despite the name, there’s no animal in these wallets “constructed of vinyl, art, and love.” I bought one of these inexpensive wallets to keep all my cards in that I don’t carry around on a daily basis. Fun designs and supportive of independent artists.
Wallet options for men:
- Malcolm Fontier, Ecolution (hemp wallet), VeganWares:
all available at Moo Shoes - Splaff Bike Tube Wallet at Splaff
- Green Guru Billboard Wallet at Vegan Store
Cruelty-Free: For Our Companion Animals
So how do we create a home that’s completely cruelty-free when our animals aren’t as taken with the idea of embracing a vegetarian diet? I know there are some people who would suggest that my pups would eat all-vegetarian if that’s all they were offered; when Pushkin was sick, however, and my main goal was to keep his weight up, I made a choice to be as cruelty-free as possible while still taking care of Priority #1 — my beloved beagle. The parameters I set up in the kitchen based on my pups’ preferences are good to keep in mind for humans and non-humans alike, especially if you have family members who just aren’t ready or as willing to embrace a vegetarian or vegan diet. I encourage everyone, whether it’s about food for their animal companions or their human family members, to take some time to find out where their food is coming from and how the animals are treated before they get to our tables. Think organic, local, cage-free, free-range, grass-fed… and try to stick with these words as often as possible while you do your grocery shopping. Human-grade is another good thing to look for when shopping for the animals in your home.
Two product lines I am especially wild about:
- The Honest Kitchen: Dehydrated recipes that are 100% free of chemical preservatives, by-products and fillers.
- Dogswell: Healthy grain-free options. For their chicken recipe food or chicken treats, they use only cage-free chickens, with no added hormones. My dogs like the Mellow Mutt treats, dried chicken breast strips flavored with chamomile and lavender.
Dry Food:
- Azmira Classic Beef Dry Dog Food
- Pet Promise Daily Health Dry Food
Wet Food:
- Dogswell Wet Food: Vitality (Chicken & Sweet Potato recipe)
- Dogswell Wet Food: Happy Hips (Glucosomine and Chondroitin)
- Azmira Holistic Animal Care Wet Food: Beef & Chicken Formula
Treats:
- Dogswell “Veggie Life” Happy Hips Sweet Potato Chews
- Whole Paws (Whole Foods) Hip & Joint Formula Dog Biscuits
- Trader Joe’s Organic Chicken and Brown Rice Recipe treat sticks
- Zuke’s Hip Action Dog Treats (beef, peanut butter)
- *Itty Bitty Buddy Biscuits (peanut butter): we use these treats when we play with the Dog Brick game! (see Pawlickers.com for more details and to purchase this game)
- Pet Promise Natural Pet Shampoo (with Oatmeal and Aloe)
Cruelty-Free: Chocolate (La Dolce Vita)
So, for all my chocolate-lovin’ friends out there, here’s the scoop: one of the largest commercial chocolate manufacturers does some pretty horrific things to animals. Suffice it to say that there have been reports of force-feedings and injections of ingredients into arteries. If you need more gruesome details to convince yourself it’s time to give up that favorite chocolate bar from your childhood, I’ll leave you to google “Mars, Inc.” for yourself. The good news is that Hershey’s does not fund or implement animal testing, so you still have plenty to choose from while waiting in the grocery line: Cadbury, Almond Joy, Mounds, Heath, Kit Kat, Milk Duds, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and Whoppers are all Hershey’s products.
But maybe it’s time to get a little more adventurous with your chocolate. Why limit yourself to the impulse buys at the supermarket register? Good chocolate is as complex and seductive as good wine. Not surprisingly, my personal favorite comes from Italia. My favorite chocolate indulgence is Baci — kisses in Italian: bittersweet chocolate drops with a filling of crushed hazelnut pieces. Molto dolce! And, these days, there are several organic, fair trade options. In addition to being cruelty-free, these product lines directly address the issues of using pesticides and child labor in chocolate production.
Ones to try:
- Climate Change Chocolate
- Dagoba Organic Chocolate
- Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates
- Seeds of Change Organic Chocolate
Cruelty-Free: In the Home Office
A recent discovery, The Green Office (thegreenoffice.com), offers a variety of products that could be good alternatives to the stuff cluttering up your desk right now. And what I really love about them is their “green screen” approach: each product is tagged as conventional, green, or dark green; all three categories require a product to meet certain sustainability criteria.
If you can’t get used to the idea of elephant dung post-its, stick with those generic sticky-note pads for now…

