Finally China has agreed to stop testing cosmetics on animals!
I’ve just received this good news in an email from Cruelty Free International:
“Cruelty Free International is delighted that China is proposing to abolish its requirement for animal testing for cosmetics including shampoo, skincare and perfume from June 2014.
This is a ground-breaking moment – currently China requires all cosmetics to be submitted for animal testing in Government laboratories. This breakthrough has the potential to transform the situation for ethical cosmetic companies that have, up to now, refused to sell in China in order to remain Leaping Bunny certified, which bars cosmetics whose ingredients are tested on animals.
Cruelty Free International has been at the forefront to encourage Chinese regulators to accept alternatives to animal testing for cosmetics and we are thrilled by this news. We couldn’t have done it without your support, so on behalf of the rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats and mice who will be spared from cruel cosmetics tests – thank you!
Cruelty Free International’s China Task Force, made up of leading cosmetics companies and with the support of the European Commission and Cosmetics Europe, has made tremendous headway since the exciting and influential new partnership was born.
Last month the China Task Force, with the support of leading European companies such as The Body Shop, l’Occitane, Montagne Jeunesse and Marks and Spencer, responded to a China Food and Drug Administration (FDA) consultation urging for a route for industry to be able to market cosmetics in China without animal testing.
Just in the last few weeks, Cruelty Free International’s Director of Policy, Dr Nick Palmer, spoke to the REACH 24H Chemical Regulatory Conference and Asia’s premier cosmetics industry event, the Asia Cosmetics Innovation Summit 2013, both in Shanghai. Dr Palmer pressed the case to open up the Chinese market to companies that do not want their products tested on animals.
Next stop; the world!
Over 80% of the world still allows cosmetics to be tested on animals. The suggested change of policy in China shows what can be done when animal protection organisations, industry and the Commission all work together!”
Vamp It Up 