Will Europe Listen to the 1.4 Million People Who’ve Called for an End to Cosmetic Animal Testing?

THINK

Sep 16

Written By Amy Jones

For the second time in seven years, more than one million EU citizens have signed the European Citizens Initiative (ECI) to end the use of animals in cosmetic and chemical tests.

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A petition calling for an end to animal testing for cosmetics in the European Union has hit 1.5 million signatures following a 12-month campaign by more than 100 animal protection groups.

In excess of 10 million animals, including cats, dogs, rabbits, and mice, and others undergo testing in laboratories across Europe every year.

But controversy surrounding the practice is growing amid concerns over animal suffering, as well as increased research into more reliable testing methods.

The European Citizens Initiative (ECI) campaign to ban animal testing was introduced in August 2021 and was led by animal rights organizations Cruelty Free Europe, Eurogroup for Animals, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, PETA, and HSI Europe. The petition closed on August 31, 2022.

It’s been supported by global beauty and personal-care companies The Body Shop and Dove and actively promoted by a coalition of groups and campaigners from every corner of Europe.

“The wishes of citizens and legislators are clear: animals must not suffer and die for the sake of cosmetics,” reads the campaign. “We maintain that new safety assessments for cosmetics ingredients imported into, manufactured in, or sold within the EU may only rely on non-animal data.”

This marks the second ECI campaign calling for an end to animal testing to be phased out to surpass one million signatures - a milestone significantly difficult to achieve. In 2015, the “Stop Vivisection” ECI achieved over 1.15 million validated signatures.

To date, only six out of a total of 90 ECIs have been successful. But campaigners say the collection of so many signatures reinforces that the public is strongly opposed to animal testing and that the EU must take steps to act upon that.

"The huge number of signatures, and the fact that this is the second time citizens have said no to animal testing, must surely underline to Europe's lawmakers the strength of feeling there is on this issue,” said Kerry Postlewhite, Director of Public Affairs, Cruelty Free Europe.

"We hope that this time the European Commission, Members of the European Parliament and national governments take heed and act at once to end the testing on animals of ingredients used in cosmetics. We also need an ambitious and urgent plan to consign all other experiments on animals to the history books where they belong."

“Very Outdated”

Tests on animals for cosmetic products and their ingredients were banned in Europe in 2009, and a ban on the sale of animal-tested cosmetics came into force in 2013.

But a loophole remains: Under the EU's chemicals regulation, REACH, when a chemical substance is used for other purposes in addition to cosmetic ingredients, it is required that animal testing must be carried out.

Julia Fentem, head of the Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre at Unilever, parent company of Dove, has called the EU's regulations "very outdated", noting that they fail to account for advances in non-animal testing.

What are the next steps?

According to Cruelty Free Europe, all signatures must be submitted to each member state within three months of the closing date. Each signature goes through a verification process, and after receiving all verified signatures the European Commission will carefully examine the ECI.

Within one month of receiving it, Commission representatives will meet with the organizers of the campaign to further discuss the issues behind the ECI.

Within three months of validation, there will be a hearing in the European Parliament, followed by a possible vote, and then within six months, the Commission will give its formal response and explain what action it proposes.

“European citizens have made the task for the European Commission clear: it must come forward with substantive legislative proposals to phase out all animal experiments and end the suffering of millions of animals in laboratories in Europe,” said Aviva Vetter, Humane Society International senior manager for cosmetics. “We demand change in testing and research. It is time for Europe to evolve past cruel and outdated animal testing.”

‘Save Ralph’: Spreading Awareness Through Film

Last year, a three-minute, stop-motion animation film “Save Ralph” helped to shine a spotlight on the suffering experienced by animals used in cosmetic testing around the world, while engaging citizens to become part of the solution.

Created by Humane Society International (HSI), Save Ralph features HSI’s spokesbunny Ralph, as he goes through his daily routine as a “tester” in a lab. The film has received more than 14 million views on YouTube and was awarded the Grand Prix for Good, prestigious recognition as the top non-profit film entered into this year’s Cannes Lions Festival.

The film featured a star-studded cast including Oscar-winner Taika Waititi as Ralph, along with Ricky Gervais, Zac Efron, Olivia Munn, Pom Klementieff and Tricia Helfer. It was also produced or subtitled in multiple languages to support HSI’s efforts to influence lawmakers in Canada, Brazil, Chile, Europe, Mexico, Southeast Asia, South Korea and beyond.

“This prestigious recognition by the Cannes Lions jury is an honor and a testament to Ralph’s powerful message that testing cosmetics on animals is cruel and needs to stop,” said Donna Gadomski, the film’s executive producer. “We are very grateful to Cannes Lions for this high-profile opportunity to keep the issue in the global spotlight and we hope that it adds momentum to our efforts to end this unnecessary cruelty.”

Animal Testing for Cosmetics in the US

In the United States, eight U.S. states - California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia - have all passed landmark laws in recent years to ban the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals.

In 2019, the Humane Cosmetics Act was introduced by bipartisan politicians, including vegan Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). The bill would end the use of animal-based testing for cosmetics in the U.S. and prohibit the sale of any cosmetic product that has been tested on animals after the law has passed. However, the legislation has not yet passed despite garnering support from more than 900 countries, including LUSH, H&M, Overstock.com, Unilever, and P&G.

Meanwhile, New York is just one step away from making historic progress to protect animals from the unnecessary pain and suffering of animal cosmetics testing. Assembly Bill A5653B, also known as the New York Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act, will prohibit the sale of cosmetics in the state of New York that have been newly tested on animals starting on January 1st of 2023. Join Species Unite in urging New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul to sign New York’s Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act into law here.

In addition, Congress is currently in the process of passing the FDA Safety and Landmark Advancements Act (FDASLA), a major bill that will have far reaching implications for medical issues, including several that are directly related to animal welfare and testing.

A very important piece of legislation that animal welfare organizations are fighting for, “The FDA Modernization Act”, which will remove the outdated requirement that all new drugs must go through animal testing trials before approval, has been included in this larger bill and therefore has a higher chance of eventually becoming law.

However, the larger bill also includes a provision that will strip protections from animals in states that have passed laws prohibiting animal testing in cosmetics and prevent other states from passing new ones. “If this “Preemption Clause” remains in the final version of the bill the overall bill will be two steps forward one step back for animals,” said Elizabeth Novogratz, Species Unite founder. “Yes, we will end our outdated testing mandate for drugs but we will be opening the door to more animal testing for cosmetics.” Learn more about what you can do to help make sure this does not go ahead here.

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