PETA, Cruelty Free Europe, Dove, The Body Shop, and Over 450 Others Defend Animal Testing Ban

PETA, Cruelty Free Europe, and over 450 companies, brands, and animal protection organisations – including Dove, Simple, Lush, and The Body Shop – have signed 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.

Hang On – Isn’t Cosmetics Testing Banned in Europe?

In short, yes. 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 organisations 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.

©Doctors Against Animal Experiments

As noted in the letter, the world is moving away from animal testing. In 2018, the European Parliament called for the introduction of a worldwide ban on testing cosmetics on animals by 2023, and 84% of people in a recent global survey said they would not buy a cosmetics product if they knew it had been tested on animals.

What Can You Do to Help?

Testing beauty products on animals is ugly, full stop. Do your part by always using cruelty-free products, and when in doubt, check the PETA US 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: