Leaping Bunny
ANIMAL WELFARE
CONFIDENCE HIGH · ANALYSIS ONLY, NOT AN AUDIT OR CERTIFICATION
Our read
Leaping Bunny is the strictest animal-testing standard available to North American companies, and it earns that by reaching into the supply chain rather than stopping at the finished product. Most cruelty-free claims cover only the final formulation, which is close to meaningless because the testing happens at ingredient level. Leaping Bunny requires signed compliance declarations from every third-party manufacturer and supplier, prohibits selling into markets that would require regulatory animal testing, and binds foreign distributors by contract. It is a genuine commercial cost for the companies that take it. Two things a reader should hold onto. First, the Fixed Cut-off Date is chosen by the company, not set by the standard, so the mark certifies no NEW animal testing after a date that may be recent. Second, and more relevant here, Leaping Bunny has no environmental scope whatsoever. Not carbon, not packaging, not water, not sourcing, and not ingredient safety. It does not even tell a reader whether the product is vegan. Treating the bunny as a general ethical or sustainability signal is the most common misreading of it.
What it covers
- No animal testing of finished cosmetic or household products, their formulations or their ingredients, by the company or on its behalf
- A company-set Fixed Cut-off Date that must be fixed and applied across the company's entire product range, now and in the future
- No purchase of any ingredient, formulation or product from a manufacturer or supplier that tested on animals after the company's Fixed Cut-off Date
- A Supplier Monitoring System: signed Declarations of Product Compliance and Declarations of Raw Material Compliance held on file from every third-party manufacturer and supplier
- Prohibition on allowing animal testing for submission to foreign regulatory agencies, which in practice blocks conventional mainland China retail routes
- A mandatory contract addendum binding foreign distributors to the same prohibition
- Annual recommitment by the company
- Independent audit of the Supplier Monitoring System by an accredited auditing firm where CCIC requires it: CCIC commissions it for companies under $10M gross annual sales, companies at or above $10M commission it themselves from a CCIC-provided firm
- Non-compliant formulations or ingredients must be replaced or removed from the range
What it leaves out
Not a criticism of the scheme. A standard is a scope, and this is where this one ends.
- No environmental scope of any kind: no carbon, energy, water, waste, packaging or pollution criteria
- Says nothing about whether a product is vegan or contains animal-derived ingredients
- No ingredient safety, toxicity or chemical hazard criteria
- No labour, human rights or worker welfare criteria
- No sourcing, deforestation or agricultural practice criteria
- The Fixed Cut-off Date is set by the company, not by the standard, so testing before that date is grandfathered
- Suppliers of Natural Agricultural Ingredients are exempt from providing Declarations of Raw Material Compliance
- Ingredients animal-tested to meet explicit statutory or regulatory requirements are exempt, provided the testing was not to assess cosmetic or household product safety, efficacy or environmental effects
- Independent audit is discretionary, not routine; the baseline evidence is supplier declarations held on file at the company
- Excludes paint, varnish, stains, drain unblockers, insecticides, permanent tattoos, ingestible supplements and medicinal patches
The scheme
| Issued by | Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC), operated in North America by the American Anti-Vivisection Society; internationally aligned with Cruelty Free International |
|---|---|
| Where it applies | United States and Canada for certification; the logo is recognised in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and much of the European Union |
| Audit and renewal | Annual recommitment, with independent audit of the Supplier Monitoring System where CCIC requires it |
| Cost | Free to apply, certify and be listed for companies headquartered in the United States or Canada. Optional one-time logo licence fee on a sliding scale. Companies at or above $10M gross annual sales bear the cost of their own independent audit; CCIC commissions and covers the audit for companies below that threshold. |
What we read
The Corporate Standard of Compassion for Animals, as published in full on leapingbunny.org, July 2026
- supplier reach and cut-off date — The Company does not and shall not purchase any Ingredient, formulation, or product from any Third Party Manufacturer or Supplier that conducted, Commissioned, or had been party to Animal Testing on said Ingredient, formulation, or product
- fixed cut-off date is company-set and range-wide — A Fixed Cut-off Date must be fixed, and applied across the Company's entire Cosmetic and/or Household Products range, now and in the future.
- supplier monitoring system — A Company must obtain and provide to CCIC Declarations of Product Compliance and Declarations of Raw Material Compliance from each of its Third Party Manufacturers and Suppliers
- audit availability and thresholds — CCIC may require a Company's Supplier Monitoring System to be submitted to an Independent Audit. (1) A company demonstrating less than $10 million in gross annual sales must agree to an independent audit commissioned by the CCIC with an acc
- natural agricultural ingredient exemption — Companies are not required to obtain Declarations of Raw Material Compliance from suppliers of Natural Agricultural Ingredients.
- regulatory testing exemption — The prohibition against Animal Testing contained in the Standard does not apply to the purchase of animal-tested Ingredients if: (a) the ingredient was tested to meet explicit statutory or regulatory requirements for animal testing; AND (b)
- no vegan or composition information — The Leaping Bunny list does not provide information about the composition of ingredients.
- annual recommitment and audit openness — All Leaping Bunny companies must be open to independent audits, and commitments are renewed on an annual basis.
- cost_range — Joining the Leaping Bunny Program is free if a brand is headquartered in the US or Canada. However, a company may optionally choose to license the Leaping Bunny Logo for a nominal, one-time fee based on a sliding scale.
What we could not establish
Could not establish how frequently CCIC actually exercises the independent audit provision, or what share of certified companies has been audited; the standard says CCIC 'may require' it, so audit is discretionary rather than routine, which is why independence is scored 3 rather than 4. Could not locate a published register of companies removed from the programme for non-compliance, so enforcement rests on the annual recommitment cycle, the replace-or-remove obligation and delisting from the public list rather than on a documented sanctions record. The standard read is the North American CCIC version; Cruelty Free International certifies companies headquartered outside the US and Canada under a related but separately administered programme that was not read here.
Who holds it
Scored companies carrying this mark, highest first. Holding it is not the same as scoring well — the mark is one input of six.
If you hold this certification, it is already on your record. What a buyer cannot see there yet is the evidence behind the parts this standard does not reach.