Victory! Canada Bans Cosmetic Animal Testing
Companies will no longer be allowed to test cosmetic products on animals, or sell cosmetics that have been tested on animals.
Credit: H&M Beauty
The Canadian government has announced today that it has officially banned the “cruel and unnecessary” testing of cosmetic products on animals.
Under the new legislative changes, companies in Canada will no longer be allowed to test cosmetic products on animals or sell their cosmetics that rely on animal testing data to establish safety.
Animal welfare groups welcomed the “long overdue” legislation, after the issue was first raised in Parliament through a Private Member’s Bill in the Senate back in 2015.
Calls for the ban had received huge public support. The Body Shop, which calls itself an “activist beauty retailer”, said its instore petition against animal testing resulted in 925,000 signatures, making the petition the largest in the history of Canada since the Bill of Rights in 1949.
"Protecting animals, now and in the future, is something that many Canadians have been calling for, and something we can all celebrate”, said Canada's Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, who announced the ban. “We are proud to move forward with this measure, and to assure Canadians that the products they buy are cruelty-free.”
In a statement, the government’s department of health highlighted that the practise of testing cosmetics on animals has significantly decreased worldwide. All European countries, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Korea have already introduced measures to prohibit cosmetic animal testing. Now the Canadian government’s new legislation makes the country part of that global shift towards phasing out cosmetic animal testing.
Is Cosmetic Animal Testing Banned in the United States?
In the US, ten states (California, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Virginia) have all passed laws to end the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.
However, there is no legislation that bans cosmetic animal testing on a national level, so cosmetic companies in the US are still legally allowed to perform invasive tests on animals including rabbits, mice, guinea pigs and rats. These experiments range from skin and eye irritation tests where chemicals are dripped into the eyes of restrained rabbits, to widely condemned “lethal dose” tests, where rats are forced to swallow high amounts of chemicals to determine what amount causes death.
Credit: PETA
A large percentage of the animals used in such testing receive no protection under the US Animal Welfare Act.
Many animal welfare campaign groups including the Humane Society are working to pass the Humane Cosmetics Act in the US, which is federal legislation that would prohibit animal testing for cosmetics, as well as the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.
More than 100 million animals including dogs, cats, monkeys, mice, and rats are subjected to painful tests in US laboratories every year. Help speak out against animal testing and tell the US government to immediately stop importing monkeys from Cambodia for horrific experiments - sign the petition here.
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