Tomorrow is the World Day for Laboratory Animals. Despite animal activists campaigning against cosmetics testing on animals for decades now, despite that cosmetics testing on animals is supposedly banned under EU Cosmetics Regulation (both as finished products and as ingredients, from sale in the European Union, even if produced elsewhere) for more than a decade now, and despite the availability of non-animal methods and many thousands of ingredients already considered as safe, as well as clear opposition from the public, the ugly truth is that about 500,000 animals per year continue to be tortured in laboratories all over the world in tests for ingredients used in cosmetics alone. These cruel tests include dripping cosmetics chemicals into animals’ eyes, shaving their fur and rubbing cosmetics chemicals into their exposed skin or forcing cosmetics chemicals down their throats.

The reason that even among EU countries cosmetics testing on animals is still performed is that the 12 years ban has loopholes, with the most important one being the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulation, which is an EU chemical safety regulation requiring all chemicals used in Europe to be re-tested for safety, and it conflicts with the Cosmetic Products Regulation (CPR). According to the REACH regulation, companies must provide information regarding health and environmental safety of each chemical they use. Data about many chemicals already exits, however, for each new chemical introduced, in order to provide the information required by the REACH regulation, some companies within the EU still perform tests on animals. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and the European Commission argue that even ingredients used exclusively in cosmetics may be tested on animals under EU chemicals legislation REACH, if there is a possibility of workforce exposure.

If the animal liberation movement has not yet managed to end animal testing, even for cosmetics, even only in EU after a ban was legislated 12 years ago, what are the chances of ending all animal testing, for all reasons, not to mention all uses of animals, for all reasons?!