Did you know that certain dishonest Australian manufacturers display the Choose Cruelty Free logo backwards, misleading consumers and having them believe that their products are cruelty free when in all likelihood they're not?

When you own your own business you tend to find yourself monitoring competitor products as you walk down supermarket aisles. We certainly do! Recently we began taking more notice of competitor product labels, and what we discovered was nothing short of scandalous. For many years now Pure Earth has paid an annual license fee to use (and more importantly, to be certified by) the Choose Cruelty Free (Not Tested on Animals) organisation in Australia. The fee that we pay is many thousands of dollars.

The Choose Cruelty Free (CCF) logo is virtually a "household name" and one that most observant consumers instantly recognise and identify with. What isn't well known, however, is the sad fact that certain unscrupulous Australian manufacturers are using this logo without permission and without their product certified "cruelty free". The next time you're in a supermarket pay particular attention to the "personal care" section. There you may find what we see on a regular basis, skin and hair care products using the Choose Cruelty Free logo on their product label - backwards! By doing so these manufacturers are able to tout their products as "cruelty free" and also avoid paying the annual license fee - funds that the CCF organisation relay heavily upon!

So how do we know this? Unfortunately the Choose Cruelty Free organisation relies on donations and license fees to sustain its model and we guess that fighting manufacturers in court would deplete the organisation; the manufacturers in question probably know this.

Simply put, the Choose Cruelty Free rabbit faces left. If you see products on your supermarket shelves that you suspect are not genuinely using the CCF logo correctly, write to CCF and tell them! You can view a list of all licensees on the CCF website at http://www.choosecrueltyfree.org.au/list.html. And of course, you will find us listed as a proud, and genuine, licensed member - and supporter - of cruelty-free products.

Tell us what you think. Have you seen these products that we're describing? Leave your comments below, we'd love to hear from you.