Places Around the World Work to Ban Cosmetics Testing on Animals

Published July 21, 2015 by PETA Staff. Last Updated August 20, 2024.

2 min read

The campaign to end cosmetics testing on animals is making historic progress around the globe, and it’s happening fast! In case you haven’t heard, here’s the latest:

The European Union, India, Israel, and Norway all have bans in place making it illegal to test cosmetics on animals within their borders or to sell cosmetics that have been tested on animals elsewhere. It was PETA India, with support from scientists with PETA UK and PETA US, that worked with Indian officials to end cosmetics testing on animals in that country.
New Zealand‘s Parliament recently voted unanimously to ban animal testing for cosmetics. The ban is expected to pass its third and final reading and be signed into law.
Not to be outdone, Canada and Taiwan this year both proposed legislation that would end these tests as well as the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals..

Brazil‘s largest state, São Paulo, banned the tests back in 2014, and now the government is close to passing a nationwide bill. At this point, the bill has some significant loopholes that need to be closed, but it’s a good start.
Similarly, Korea proposed a ban in March of this year, which is a valuable step forward, even though it does have loopholes and isn’t ideal.
If the cosmetics testing bill proposed in Argentina passes, cosmetics companies that try to flout the law would be fined, and all the money collected would go to animal-protection programs.
And in the United States, the proposed Humane Cosmetics Act would end animal testing for cosmetics after a one-year phase-in and would then phase out the sale of animal-tested cosmetics in three years.

Learn more about experiments on animals on The PETA Podcast:

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What You Can Do

No animal should ever suffer and die in a laboratory. Tell your congressional representatives that you want them to support the Humane Cosmetics Act. And always buy only cruelty-free products.