PETA, Dove, The Body Shop, and More Than 450 Others Defend Animal Testing Ban
PETA, Cruelty Free Europe, and more than 450 companies, brands, and animal protection organizations—including Dove, Simple, and The Body Shop—have sent an open letter to the European Parliament, European Commission, and European Council. The letter urges legislators to uphold the EU Cosmetics Regulation’s animal testing and marketing bans and not allow cosmetics ingredients to be tested on animals under any circumstances.
Isn’t Cosmetics Testing Banned in Europe?
Since 2009, tests on animals for cosmetics ingredients have been banned in the EU under the Cosmetics Regulation. Likewise, cosmetics products and ingredients that rely on the results of animal tests conducted after 2013 for safety-assessment purposes cannot be sold in the EU.
Yet the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), supported by the European Commission and the ECHA Board of Appeal, is demanding new tests on animals for cosmetics ingredients under the guise of the REACH chemicals regulation. In the last five years alone, tests requiring the use of over 10,000 animals have been mandated. This completely circumvents the purpose of the Cosmetics Regulation—which is to bring cosmetics safely to market without requiring tests on animals—and puts animals back in laboratories.
To make matters worse, the European Commission is also working on plans that could further weaken the Cosmetics Regulation and see a reversal of the hard-won protections for animals it contains. This would result in the suffering of many more animals in cruel, pointless cosmetics tests and severely limit the availability of products and ingredients marketed within the cruelty-free sector.
What We’re Doing About It
The Cosmetics Regulation is under threat, and PETA is stepping up to protect it. We’re joining forces with compassionate companies, brands, and organizations to demand that no more animals suffer for cosmetics, a stance that’s overwhelmingly supported by the public and required by law.
The letter to EU authorities blasts them for undermining the Cosmetics Regulation and condemning thousands of animals—including rats and rabbits, some of whom are pregnant—to suffer in tests in which they are force-fed a cosmetics ingredient before being killed and dissected.
Here’s What You Can Do to Help
Testing beauty products on animals is ugly. Do your part by always using cruelty-free products, and when in doubt, check PETA’s international database of companies that do and don’t test on animals.
Please help us demonstrate the power of public opposition to testing cosmetics on animals: urge the European Commission and ECHA to respect the Cosmetics Regulation and ban tests on animals for cosmetics ingredients, no matter the circumstances:
