Testing Times

Animal testing on cosmetics was banned completely by the EU last year. Big pharma companies such as Procter and Gamble can get round this law, however, by selling cosmetics in the EU which have been tested on animals elsewhere, eg America or China.

Back in 2003, the EU established a deadline of 2013 for the complete banning from sale of ANY animal tested cosmetics in the EU. This has given the industry more than a decade to prepare – and, of course, since a massive amount of cosmetics, out of the global market, are sold in Europe, this will put massive financial pressure on the animal testing companies to stop the cruel and un-necessary process of causing suffering to animals just to tick a box that says they have tested a new mascara!

But now, of course, under lobbying pressure from the big pharma companies, the EU is trying to move the goalposts and delay the implementation of the 2013 ban. Even though they have had 10 years to prepare.

So, we now have a choice. We can let them continue with the litany of pain, even though in my book we should be banning it NOW, let alone in three years from now. We can let them go on imprisoning animals in solitary confinement in wire cages, causing emotional distress and physical injuries; we can let them go on force-feeding animals chemicals via tubes shoved down their throats, at many times the doses acceptable to humans, toxins that cause cancer and other effects; we can let them go on poisoning and killing thousands of baby animals in toxicity tests; we can let them go on duplicating tests because of commercial confidentiality and disputes over results; we can let them go on giving animals a painful and terrifying death in a gas chamber once their usefulness to the company has expired.

Or we can stop them, by lobbying our democratic representatives and letting them no, in no uncertain terms, how unacceptable we find the process, and raise your voices in defence of the ban, insist on the 2013 deadline, in fact, insist on it being brought forward!

If cosmetics HAVE to be tested somewhere, maybe we should test them on Euro MPs. After all, if they can make that crowd look attractive, then we will KNOW they truly work.