Beauty group pens letter to uphold EU Cosmetics animal testing bans
By Alex Fox | 02 December 2020 | Movers & Shakers, News
Natura &Co joins PETA and Cruelty Free Europe’s the call to uphold landmark EU cosmetics animal test bans. Consumers are invited to show their purchasing power this festive season and choose ethical cosmetics brands.
The world’s fourth-largest pure-play beauty group, Natura &Co, has signed an open letter sent today to decision-makers in the European Union calling on them to uphold the ground-breaking EU animal cosmetics testing bans, which have served as a beacon of good practice around the globe, enabling consumers to make cruelty-free choices and speeding up the development of animal-free testing.
Requirements by EU authorities for cosmetics ingredients to again be tested on animals have dealt a devastating blow to the cosmetics testing and marketing bans following a series of regulatory decisions made by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), with support from the European Commission and ECHA’s Board of Appeal. As a result, the bans are at serious risk of being undermined by EU chemicals legislation.
Natura &Co, which includes Avon, Natura, The Body Shop and Aesop, is joining other leading beauty companies in backing the bans and urging consumers to show their support by shopping cruelty-free this holiday season to demonstrate that buying beauty products that are free from animal testing is important to them.
CFI’s Forever Against Animal Testing campaign with The Body Shop, including the handing in a petition of over 8 million signatures for a global animal cosmetics testing ban to the United Nations.
More than 460 cosmetics companies are adding their voices to those of animal protection groups and European citizens to once again show that they are forever against animal testing, urging shoppers to choose cruelty free this holiday.
Roberto Marques, executive chairman & group CEO of Natura &Co says: “We believe in the power of the collective voice, and that’s why we’re uniting with Cruelty Free International, the animal welfare community, and our peers in the cosmetics industry to support this important call to action.
“Natura &Co and its businesses have long used proven, scientific non-animal methods to test cosmetics ingredients and products, and we’ve done so while ensuring the very highest standards of safety and efficacy.
“We invite every individual, company and organisation who cares about animal welfare to call on the European Union to uphold its animal testing ban. During the holiday season, we also invite consumers to flex their purchasing power by choosing to shop cruelty free.”
The Body Shop, part of the Natura &Co group, has been campaigning to ban animal testing in cosmetics for over 30 years and helped to change EU law with the ending of tests of cosmetics products on animals in 2003 and of ingredients in 2009. In 2018, The Body Shop and Cruelty Free International took a record-beating 8.3 million global signatures to the UN in New York in support of a worldwide end to animal testing for cosmetics everywhere and forever.
David Boynton, CEO of The Body Shop says: “More than 30 years ago, The Body Shop and its customers began to campaign for a ban on animal testing for cosmetics purposes. Our years of campaigning culminated in the EU ban, which was celebrated by consumers and companies across the world.
“For decades we have proved that non-animal testing methods are effective to protect people and the planet, and that animal testing for cosmetic purposes is outdated and cruel. We urge the EU to lead the world on this issue by ensuring that animal testing is ended, forever.”
Michelle Thew, CEO of Cruelty Free International, who oversaw the Leaping Bunny approval of Natura and Aesop and worked alongside The Body Shop to achieve the EU animal cosmetics testing bans, says, “The leadership the EU showed in bringing the full EU testing and marketing bans into force deserves much credit. Now it’s time for animal protection advocates, brands, industry, influencers and the public to come together to help protect this ground-breaking legislation and ensure that cruel and unnecessary animal suffering for cosmetics is eliminated from EU laboratories for good. We are calling for the European Union to listen to public opinion and ensure we uphold what EU legislators intended in 2013.”
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.”
“Testing beauty products and their ingredients on animals is ugly, full stop,” states 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.”
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 they would not buy a cosmetics product if they knew it had been tested on animals.
The letter – which is also supported by Eurogroup for Animals and Humane Society International – is available here.