Dove and The Body Shop have joined PETA, Cruelty Free Europe and Humane Society International Europe, as well as the Eurogroup for Animals and the European Coalition to End Animal Experimentation, which represent over 100 member organizations from 26 EU member states, as a matter of urgency … mobilize 1 million European citizens to protect sustainable cosmetics in Europe in the face of threats from its long-standing ban on animal testing of cosmetics.
Polls show that three quarters of adults in EU member states agree that animal testing of beauty products and their ingredients is unacceptable under any circumstance, and 70% want all animal testing to be phased out. It is sad that – once again – we have to fight the battle that the citizens of Europe thought they had already won, but with a successful European Citizenship Initiative (ECI) we can get decision-makers to listen, defend innovative bans and ensure concerted action. action to end animal suffering in EU laboratories forever.
What’s up with the bans?
In 2004, after decades of campaigning by consumers, animal welfare organizations and several companies, the EU banned animal testing of beauty products. In 2009, it banned testing of cosmetic ingredients and finally banned the sale of animal-tested cosmetics in 2013. The EU’s approach has become a blueprint for regulatory change in countries around the world.
However, the recent testing requirements of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) are effectively breaking the bans and jeopardizing the additional progress that the European Parliament has boldly called for since 2018 – a global ban on all cosmetic testing on animals by 2023.
Major players in the beauty industry support the campaign
The Body Shop has been relentlessly fighting the practice of animal testing since 1989, helping to set the current ban in Europe in motion, while Dove has spent 15 years transforming the beauty industry with its True Beauty Campaign. and the Dove self-esteem project.
Proudly certified by PETA US as non-animal testing, Dove supports bans on ending animal testing worldwide, working with legislators, animal welfare organizations and like-minded companies to achieve this goal.
The two beauty brands have teamed up to encourage consumers to take action to maintain the European ban on animal testing by signing the ECI, a mechanism by which EU citizens can help shape the EU by calling on the European Commission to propose new laws.
ECHA offers new animal testing of existing ingredients
ECHA is calling for new animal testing for ingredients that have been safely used by consumers and have been safely processed in factories for years. If his policies are supported, millions of other animals could be subjected to cruel tests – even those used exclusively for cosmetics – when there are other ways to obtain safety data.
The time to act is now
Animal testing is unnecessary for safety, thanks to modern, non-animal methods that scientists have developed and used for decades.
With one voice to end animal testing of cosmetics, The Body Shop, Dove and PETA and other animal welfare organizations are urging consumers to sign the ECI on the conservation of animal-friendly cosmetics, demanding that the European Commission do the following:
1. Protection and strengthening of the ban on testing cosmetics on animals.
The Commission should initiate legislative changes to ensure consumer, worker and environmental protection for all cosmetic ingredients without new animal testing for any purpose at any time.
2. Transformation of EU regulation on chemicals
The Commission should ensure the protection of human health and the environment by regulating chemicals without adding new requirements for animal testing.
3. Modernize EU regulatory science.
The Commission must, prior to the expiration of its current term, adopt a legislative proposal containing a roadmap to phase out all animal testing in the EU.
Will you join us?
Together, we aim to reach 1 million signatures in the shortest time possible for ECI by sending a clear message that ECHA’s demands for new tests run counter to the wishes of EU citizens and against the animal testing policy as a last resort supported by the European Commission.
But we cannot do it alone.
European citizens, no matter where they live, can sign the ECI and tell the European Commission that they will not accept Europe’s unfulfilled promises or regulations that mean animals suffer and die because of cosmetics.
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