Absolut Vodka, Chivas Regal Whiskey End All Animal Tests

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

For Immediate Release:
September 10, 2019

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Following discussions with PETA, Pernod Ricard—the world’s second-largest wine and spirits company—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 whiskey, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Seagram’s Gin, Malibu Rum, Jacob’s Creek wine, and Kenwood wine—and 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 vapor, stabbed needles in their eyes, deprived them of water, force-fed them rat and human feces, 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 Vice President Shalin Gala. “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.

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.