The Bodyshop: Forever against animal testing campaign

One thing I’m very passionate about is animal testing, and especially the lack of concern I see around me about that subject. It’s not that people don’t care about these animals and that they don’t find it disgusting and wrong to test cosmetic products on them but they just don’t know enough about it. It is an invisible issue. What you don’t see isn’t there, right?

I’m currently working on some posts with more information about animal testing and especially why you shouldn’t buy products that are animal tested. There are also some posts coming up with tips to go animal testing free. So if you want to learn more: keep an eye on my blog!

Currently, animal tests aren’t banned in about 80% of the world and in these countries animals are used to test many cosmetic products on. Because of these tests animals live with incredible pain and sometimes these tests can even cause death. Luckily there is a light in this animal testing darkness. One of my favorite brands, The Body shop has fought animal testing for more than three decades and since they’ve made amazing progress in making this an animal testing free world.

With their campaign, ‘Against animal testing’, in 1989 The Body Shop was the first global cosmetic company campaigning against animal testing on cosmetic products. In 1998 the government of the United Kingdom banned animal testing on cosmetic products and ingredients as the first country to do so. In 2003 campaigning by The Body Shop and BUAV, now Cruelty Free International, contributed to the ban on animal testing on cosmetic products in the European Union. Followed by a ban on testing on all cosmetic ingredients in 2009 in the European Union. In 2013 the campaign continued and more and more countries were considering bans on cosmetic products and ingredients. Now, in 2017, they have started a petition to ban animal testing all over the world forever.

The Body Shop has contributed to all these changes and started a movement to finally stop animal testing.

Unfortunately, there are still many countries where animal testing isn’t banned. To ban cosmetic tests on animals everywhere The Body Shop has started a petition. The goal is to collect 8 million signatures to present to the UN General Assembly in 2018. 8 million signatures is a lot so that is why I write this blog post. I want to ask you to click this link and sign the petition. Every signature helps to reach our goal of making the world free of animal testing. If you want more information about the petition you can click here.

I also want to remind you of the fact that testing cosmetic products on animals isn’t necessary. There are other ways that don’t harm any living creatures. For example in-silico (computer-based) analysis and Laboratory-produced EpiSkin (artificially grown human skin cells). I’ll write more about these ways of testing cosmetic products in the future but my point is that we really don’t need to harm animals to make good, and even more important, safe cosmetic products.

I really hope to have convinced you to sign the petition so we can reach the goal of 8 million signatures before 2018. Only if we stand together we can really make a change and stop animal testing forever.

Resources:

• https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/about-us/against-animal-testing
• https://foreveragainstanimaltesting.com/page/9583/petition/1