The Body Shop has launched a campaign in partnership with Cruelty Free International calling for a global ban on cosmetics animal testing by 2020.
The campaign aims to get “at least 8 million people from every corner of the globe who care about animal welfare” to sign a petition which the Body Shop will then take to the United Nations.
Launching the campaign, The Body Shop’s international campaigns and corporate responsibility manager Jessie Macneil-Brown, said the company “passionately believes that no animal should be harmed in the name of cosmetics and that animal testing on products and ingredients is outdated, cruel and unnecessary”.
“We will take the petition to the United Nations to call on them to support a global ban on animal testing in cosmetic products and ingredients.
“With an international convention enforced, consumers would finally be confident that any cosmetics they buy are cruelty free.”
According to Cruelty Free International, more than 80 percent of countries still have no laws against testing in cosmetics and that approximately 500,000 animals are still used in cosmetics testing every year despite the fact “that most countries do not require safety data based on animal tests and reliable alternatives are available”.
Cruelty Free International CEO Michelle Thew says “people are confused about animal testing”.
“The world over, people want this cruel practice to end, yet existing laws are a patchwork of different rules with some very big gaps.
“While more and more countries require non-animal safety tests and many have taken steps to prohibit cosmetics testing on animals, there is more work to be done.
“Where animal testing is allowed, on both products and ingredients, most countries do not require testing data to be made available to the public or even to regulators.
“This makes it extremely difficult to know how widespread animal testing is. What we know is that one single test may involve hundreds of animals so if just one company or one country relies on animal testing, the impact on animal lives could be huge.”
Both the Body Shop and Cruelty Free stress that traditional animal tests have never been validated for their use in reliably detecting the safety of cosmetic products and ingredients.
“There are now modern alternatives such as artificially grown human skin, that are, in the majority of cases, as effective as the animal test they replace and have been validated by authorities.”
The petition can be signed online or at any of The Body Shop’s 3000 stores across the world.