many of you may have noticed that mars is phazing out skittles containing gelatin, and replacing them with ostensibly vegan versions of the rainbow colored treats.

…but not so fast! before you rush out and fork over your hard-earned dollars for the candy you have been missing for years, stop a second to think about what that money is supporting. while skittles now contain all vegan ingredients, their manufacturer is anything but cruelty-free. mars, the maker of candies such as m&m’s, snickers, twix, dove, three muskateers, starburst, and skittles, conducts deadly and unnecessary tests on animals. since this is such a happy-go-lucky blog, i won’t depress you with all the details. if you want more information, you can read about it here.

as with anything, you should take all this with a grain of salt. although, mars openly admits to testing on animals for symbioscience research, they deny sponsoring “research that harms animals” in the development of their snack food. PETA, however, claims that they are lying to the public and provides a whole list of disgusting incidents in which animal experiments were conducted for candy research. either  way, mars has confirmed that they do test on animas. do you really think the candy division money is separate from the pet food?

just to be clear, i’m not telling you to avoid skittles or not eat them now that their ingredients are vegan. go right ahead. i just want you to be aware of the tests your money is funding. if you do decide to eat up the new gelatin-free skittles anyway, be sure to read the ingredients. not all the old calves’ feet candies are completely off the shelves yet.

my two cents.