India Becomes Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Nation

[Content Note: Animal cruelty.]

India has officially banned the import of cosmetics that have been tested on animals:

India will ban the import of cosmetics that have been tested on animals anywhere in the world after November 13th. Coming just months after India heeded [the Humane Society's] call to ban domestic animal testing for cosmetics, this latest move assures that cosmetics sold in the country will no longer be associated with animal suffering. With the European Union enacting a similar ban, two giant economic markets have adopted sweeping policies to usher in a new era in cosmetics testing.

Humane Society International's Be Cruelty-Free campaigners played a decisive role in securing this victory. They worked closely with government agencies and, in June, met with India’s minister of health and family welfare to present a petition of more than 70,000 signatures from citizens supporting an import ban. Our campaigners also helped secure the support of more than 30 legislators for the ban with the help of Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, a longtime animal advocate, government minister, and founder of India's largest animal protection organization, People for Animals.

...HSI's Be Cruelty-Free campaign also helped convince Chinese authorities to drop animal testing requirements for some products sold there. Now our campaign is working with partner groups in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan to secure bans on the sale of all cosmetics tested on animals. You can join our campaign and sign the global pledge to be cruelty free here.

It's long past time for the United States to get with the program. Cruel tests for cosmetics are sadly still happening in America, even though cruelty-free alternatives exist. The HSUS and the Humane Society Legislative Fund are leading the fight for the passage of the Humane Cosmetics Act in Congress, which would bring an end to animal testing for all cosmetics made or sold in America. Let your legislator know that you support it.

One of the arguments that inevitably arises in discussions of cruelty-free cosmetics is that we need animal testing in order to know that our cosmetics are safe. This is not true.

For one thing, a product known to be safe for rabbits (for example) is not, in fact, certain to be safe for humans. Further, testing on animals to prove safety is not necessary: "Companies can ensure the safety of their products by choosing to create them using the thousands of ingredients that have a long history of safe use. There are already many products on the market that are made using such ingredients. Companies also have the option of using existing non-animal tests or investing in and developing alternative non-animal tests for new ingredients. There are a growing number of non-animal tests that can be used to assess the short-term safety of previously untested ingredients (see 'What are the alternatives to animal testing?'). Non-animal tests for longer term safety are under development."

The market is providing alternatives, and the global market is slowly but surely starting to reject the old and unnecessary reliance on animal testing.

This is the future, and I hope the US will join it soon.