FOUR PAWS’ petition against animal tested cosmetics

Animal charity hands to EU commissioner more than 100.000 signatures

Yesterday the animal charity FOUR PAWS has met in Brussels with European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs Tonio Borg, along with other leading animal protection organisations, to call for an end to the sale of animal tested cosmetics within Europe once and for all. A petition with over 100,000 signatures was handed to Commissioner Borg, along with a video of celebrities including star guitarist Brian May and actresses Jenny Seagrove and Joanna Page expressing their support. Animal lovers from Germany, Austria, The Netherlands and the UK have all pledged their support for the campaign as part of a video tour across Europe. The petition to the commissioner was an integral part of FOUR PAWS’ KISS ANIMAL TESTED COSMETICS GOODBYE 2013 campaign.

“I believe that the ban should enter into force in March 2013. I am therefore not planning to propose a postponement or derogation to the ban”, said Tonio Borg during the meeting.

FOUR PAWS is delighted to announce that after the meeting with Tonio Borg, the proposed ban on the sales of animal tested cosmetics looks set to go ahead as promised for over a decade, on 11th March 2013. „We are very pleased to have met with Commissioner Borg to confirm his position that the cosmetics sales ban must go ahead in full on 11th March“, stressed Marie-Claire Macintosh, Head of FOUR PAWS’ international Laboratory Animals Department. „This is very welcome news and the ban will mark a major step forward in ending cosmetics testing on animals, worldwide. With only weeks away, the countdown is now on to see in this historic deadline in ending animal suffering for the sake of cosmetic products''.

The March 2013 deadline represents the final phase of a long-awaited full ban. Cosmetic testing on animals was banned within the EU on 11th March 2009. However, companies continue to test their ingredients outside the EU and import them for sale. This is also due to be banned in March 2013 but concerns about the availability of alternative methods for the remaining tests, permitted until 2013, led to pressure on the EU to delay or compromise the ban by years.

In many countries outside the EU, there are hardly any regulations above animal experiments, whereby the number of animals suffering in experiments is difficult to estimate. The EU Commission assumes that up to 27.000 animals per year could be saved, when the ban is implemented.

Brussels 31 January 2013
Foto: © FOUR PAWS

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