PETA, Dove, Suave, and Many Others Defend Animal Testing Ban

For Immediate Release:
December 2, 2020

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

This morning, PETA along with Dove, Suave, and over 450 other cruelty-free brands and companies working toward regulatory change—including Simple and The Body Shop—sent an open letter to the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Council calling on them to uphold the EU Cosmetics Regulation’s animal testing and marketing bans, which set a precedent for assuring safety without subjecting animals to cruel tests.

The letter blasts the European Commission and the European Chemicals Agency for effectively shredding the bans with the requirement that several widely used cosmetic ingredients be tested on animals under the guise of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. Because of this requirement, thousands of rats and rabbits, including pregnant ones, have been condemned to suffer in tests in which they’re force-fed a cosmetics ingredient before being killed and dissected.

“Testing beauty products and their ingredients on animals is ugly, full stop,” says PETA Science Policy Manager Dr. Julia Baines. “PETA is joining forces with compassionate companies to demand a kind approach to cosmetics testing that spares sensitive animals’ lives and involves non-animal tests only, as required by law.”

Director of public affairs for Cruelty Free Europe Kerry Postlewhite says, “European citizens and their representatives in the European Parliament fought hard for these bans, which have been a model for many other markets. They must be upheld as intended so that animals do not suffer for cosmetics in Europe.”

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

The letter—which is also supported by Eurogroup for Animals, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, and Humane Society International—is available here.