Source: PETA / Ingrid Newkirk
Date: 05/31/2007

A little more than a month ago, PETA successfully concluded discussions with food-industry giant PepsiCo—the multibillion-dollar parent company of brands like Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay, Tropicana, Quaker Oats, and Gatorade—that resulted in the company's announcement that it will no longer conduct or fund experiments on animals.

Now, after hearing from PETA, PepsiCo's rival Coca-Cola has agreed to stop animal tests. Prior to our discussions, Coca-Cola had a history of conducting invasive and deadly animal experiments—including cutting open chimpanzees' faces in order to conduct taste tests and force-feeding chemicals to rats to test "caramel color"—none of which is necessary or required by law.

Coca-Cola's senior vice president and chief innovation and technology officer, Danny Strickland, wrote to PETA on May 22 and stated, "I want to assure you that The Coca-Cola Company does not conduct animal tests and does not directly fund animal tests on its beverages. ... We are sending letters to our partners and research organizations who may conduct safety evaluations on ... ingredients insisting they use alternatives to animal testing."

Strickland also addressed a deadly physiology test on taste reception in rats that PETA had discovered Coca-Cola was funding and said, "Recently senior management became aware that research involving rats was being conducted as part of a grant we had funded at Virginia Commonwealth University to study taste reception. We have contacted the University and have discontinued our funding."

Coca-Cola's commitment not to fund tests on animals—and its instruction to its suppliers to use alternatives to animal testing—is a sign of hope for the millions of animals who are forced to endure cruel and unnecessary experiments every year.

Coca-Cola joins PepsiCo, Welch's, Ocean Spray, POM Wonderful, and more than 22 other beverage companies that have pledged to PETA that they will not fund or conduct animal tests.

Yet some food and beverage companies remain behind the times and continue to fund or conduct cruel and outdated tests on animals. Please take a moment to write to Unilever—maker of Lipton Tea and many other food products—and urge the company to follow Coca-Cola's lead in ending cruel animal tests for their foods, beverages, and ingredients.

Please send polite comments to:

Michael B. Polk, Group Vice President and President, Americas
Unilever PLC
700 Sylvan Ave.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
201-894-4000
1-877-995-4483
201-871-8257 (fax)
comments@unilever.com

If you live in the U.K., please send polite comments to:
Patrick Cescau
Unilever's U.K.-based group chief executive and director, at patrick.cescau@unilever.com. Please help support our groundbreaking work in behalf of animals in laboratories. We couldn't achieve these important victories for animals without your continued—and much appreciated—support. Thank you very much for your help as we work to end cruelty to animals.

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