In a momentous step forward today in ending cruel and unnecessary animal testing, industry giant Unilever announced its support for a worldwide animal testing ban on cosmetics. Dove, a subsidiary of Unilever, has gone even a step further, earning cruelty-free accreditation status from PETA.
Just two weeks ago California passed a groundbreaking law to ban the sale of animal-tested cosmetics. This is the latest in a string of major worldwide shifts away from animal testing.
Since 2013, the sale of animal-tested cosmetics has been banned in the EU and in Israel. More recently, similar bans have been implemented in India, New Zealand, Turkey, South Korea, Switzerland, Guatemala, and Taiwan.
To be clear, Unilever will still be testing products on animals when required to do so by law in other countries. But it’s clear that Unilever wants to see a day when this can end, too. As Unilever Chief R&D Officer put it: “We’re very hopeful that through collaboration–amongst companies, NGOs and Governments–it will soon be possible to assess the safety of all cosmetics products without any need for animal testing anywhere in the world.”
The elephant in the room here is China, which is home to one of the world’s largest cosmetics markets, and is one of the last countries on earth to require that cosmetics be tested on animals. But brave companies like Unilever, the governments and animal protection organizations that have worked tirelessly with them for decades, and support from people like you, show us that progress can and will be made.
Help us continue to put pressure on companies to go cruelty-free by only shopping for Leaping Bunny Certified products.
Update: November 5, 2018
More good news for animals! Cosmetics giant CoverGirl has just announced their cruelty-free certification by Leaping Bunny. This means none of their products have been tested on animals by either CoverGirl itself or any of their suppliers. They join the growing list of companies choosing not to harm animals. We can’t wait to see who is going to be next.