The European Union Bans Cosmetic Testing on Animals

After 23-years of fighting to end cosmetic experiments on animals, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments has finally received their wish.  All member countries of the European Union must follow the rules of banning all cosmetic testing on animals. The rules went into effect as of March 11. All cosmetic brands including high-end brands must abide by this new rule that is aimed at the protection of animals.

As mentioned before, the long running debate on whether animal testing should be banned or not has been going on for years. According to the members of the ECEAU, the current European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, is the major reason for the dramatic change. They also blame the old commissioner for continuing practices that may have weakened the ban on animal testing and allowed it to continue. According to their words the commissioner allowed for them to practice the safety of cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients until companies found an alternative way to do so.  The current commissioner Tonio Borg was more sympathetic to the plight of the animals.

The new methods for testing cosmetics may be more complicated but it is said to spare over 12 million animals a year from being tested on to see if cosmetics are safe. The cases of brutal animal testing came to light in the 90’s when people started hearing of the awful experiments animals were being subjected to in the name of beauty. 

Some experiments included, rubbing chemicals into the eyes of rabbits or the shaved skin of rabbits to see if there was any irritation to the body. No pain relief is given to the animals while such a painful experiment is being administered. Another painful testing method uncovered is one where animals are force-fed to eat chemicals or even beauty products so that scientist can see if they develop any illnesses such as cancer. They’ll also breed the animals to look for any birth defects in the future. If those aren’t bad enough for you, the most widely unaccepted from of animal testing is considered the lethal dose method. During the legal dose method animals are fed as much of a product as possible until they die to measure what the lethal dosage for that cosmetic product would be.

The people who have fought long and hard consider this ban a huge victory in animal rights. Because of the horrific nature of the experiments, it is easy to see why.