PETA Global Issue 3

P U T T I N G V I V I S E C T I O N U N D E R T H E M I C R O S C O P E

How PETA Gave the Cosmetics Industry a

Lipstick smear: © iStock.com/WEKWEK

Makeove

1989: L'Oréal Learns a Lesson the Hard Way PETA protesters gathered outside L'Oréal's headquarters with their feet cemented in boxes (so the police couldn’t whisk them away) to protest its tests on animals. Some demonstrators even wore adult “diapers” so they could stay as long as it took! The police dragged them off using chains.

W hen PETA was founded in 1980, cruelty-free cosmetics practically didn’t exist. Unless you took your own bottle to a co-op, you could buy only one shampoo in the US that wasn’t tested on animals – and it was imported, expensive, and hard to find. Now – after PETA’s nearly four decades of protests, meetings with corporate and government officials, funding of high-tech, non-animal research, and more – finding cruelty-free personal-care products is as easy as walking into anyWalgreens or Boots. More than 2,700 companies have joined PETA’s “BeautyWithout Bunnies” list in response to consumer demand for beauty products that no animal had to suffer and die for. Cosmetics tests on animals in India have gone the way of imperial rule, thanks to PETA India, and PETA was instrumental in getting these tests banned in the European Union. Now, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey – as well as São Paulo, Brazil – all have bans in place on such tests, and Australia, Canada, South Korea, and the United States are considering similar regulations.

The tide has turned against animal testing worldwide, with one notable exception: China, where tests on animals for most cosmetics and personal-care products are mandatory. PETA pulled back the curtain on some formerly cruelty free companies that had quietly started funding cruel tests so that they would be permitted to sell their products in China. When PETA exposedMAC Cosmetics’ tests, the backlash from outraged customers was swift and severe. MAC vice presidents came clean in a Teen Vogue piece and pledged to fund efforts to end the tests. (IIVS) so that they can collaborate directly with Chinese scientists and government officials, setting up non-animal testing laboratories and training scientists in China, as well as working to get data from non-animal tests accepted by the government. And it’s paid off: China has accepted its first-ever non-animal test, and the country now accepts non PETA was way ahead of them: For years, it has been funding experts at the Institute for In Vitro Sciences

Coverage of the protest made worldwide news, and L'Oréal eventually stopped testing on animals (although today some of its products are animal-tested in China).

T I M E C A P S U L E

T I M E C A P S U L E

When you take a bath with these luxurious, cruelty-free, vegan bath bombs, a secret message about a rescued animal is revealed. Stock up on these ideal stocking stuffers at PETACatalog.com .

animal data for some domestically produced cosmetics. PETA and its affiliates won’t relent until all animal tests are history.

Take Action Now Avon stalling! Avon funds animal tests in China and has wavered in its support of IIVS. Tell Avon that you won’t buy its products as long as they’re tested on animals. Please send polite comments to CEO Sherri McCoy at sheri.mccoy@avon.com and Avon Corporate Responsibility at avoncr@avon.com .

Cruelty-Free andVegan

Cruelty-Free

Look out for PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies logo to make sure your cosmetics are cruelty-free!

12 BE A BUNNY’S HONEY