Lush says no to animal testing

MANILA, Philippines - The public is being encouraged to add signatures of support to the store window as Lush puts the animal testing fight back on the high street.

Humane Society International and Lush Cosmetics have joined forces to launch the largest-ever global campaign to end animal testing for cosmetics. The campaign, launched to coincide with World Week for Animals in Laboratories, is being rolled out simultaneously in over 700 Lush Ltd shops across forty-eight countries including the United States, France, Australia, Singapore and China .

Last April 24 — the UN day for Animals in Laboratories – hundreds of Lush staff around the world will be getting involved with actions and protests, some as simple as raising awareness about animal testing and the cosmetics industry and asking the public to show their support by signing the store window. Others will be more shocking. In Lush’s flagship store in Regents Street, London, an extreme performance of animal testing will occur in the window.

Troy Seidle, director of research & toxicology for Humane Society International, said, “Animal testing is the ugly secret of the beauty industry, and it’s time for it to stop. Thousands of animals such as rabbits and mice continue to endure chemical poisoning tests just to produce new lipsticks and shampoos, and that’s simply unacceptable in a modern society. So we are thrilled to be joining forces with Lush to campaign for an end to the suffering and look forward to turning the whole world cruelty-free.”

Hilary Jones, ethics director at Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, said, “The animals have waited over 20 years for this legislation to be fully enacted. Whilst the laws were not strong enough, companies like Lush have adopted voluntary codes of practice to cut animal testing from their business. But animals should not have to rely on voluntary codes of conduct, they should be protected by robust laws which force ALL companies to adopt humane methods to bring their products to market. The public demanded this legislation in the 80s and 90s – it is time to honour the promise given to them to take animals out of cosmetics testing.”

Lush and Humane Society International believe that testing on animals to produce new cosmetic products or ingredients is morally and scientifically unjustified. Animals are subjected to considerable pain and distress during toxicity tests; even pregnant animals are used and their unborn babies chemically poisoned. Animal toxicity tests are also scientifically unreliable for assuring human safety because animals and humans can respond very differently to the same chemicals.

Cosmetics can easily be produced without animal testing by using the thousands of existing ingredients for which safety data is already available and advanced non-animal testing methods such as 3D human skin models, test-tube cell tests and computer models.