Author: Kristin Stone

WASHINGTON—The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has awarded ethical beauty giant Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics its prestigious Henry Spira Corporate Progress Award for 2017 in recognition of the company’s outstanding commitment to cruelty-free. “Lush do not test on animals, do not use materials that contain animal derivatives that are unsuitable for vegetarians and only buy raw materials from companies that are not involved in the use of, or commission the use of, animals for testing and have no plans to do so in the future,” according to the company’s animal testing policy.

Lush ethics director Hilary Jones said: “We have built Lush from day one using this policy—and we believe this shows that it is possible to invent, manufacture and bring to the market an entire range of products without any involvement in animal testing.” Karl Bygrave, Lush director of emerging markets, added: “For us the fight isn’t over until there is a worldwide ban in place, so to receive this award is a real honour and a reason to have a little celebration along the way.”

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The Henry Spira Corporate Progress Award honors Henry Spira, a pioneering animal advocate whose campaigns between the 1970s and 1990s are long remembered for their sophistication and focus on cooperation. In consultation with the philosopher and author Peter Singer and others, The HSUS has been bestowing the Spira awards on forward-thinking companies, business associations, and entrepreneurs since 2011. The collective impact of these game-changing actions by major companies has brought relief to millions, if not billions, of animals worldwide, and every year we’re finding more and more deserving candidates.

Lush was a founding supporter of the #BeCrueltyFree campaign launched in 2012 by Humane Society International and HSUS to achieve a global ban on animal testing for cosmetics. The company donated its storefront windows and the support of staff in hundreds of shops across dozens of countries and online to promote the campaign and help gather millions of petition signatures in support of meaningful legislative change, while also providing substantial financial support to enable HSI to be present on the ground in key beauty markets to advance groundbreaking animal protection laws.

The company also launched The Lush Prize to stimulate a race to bring about an end to animal testing and to recognise and encourage those working in the field with £330,000 in prize and funding disbursed across 5 prize categories (Science, Young Researchers, Training, Lobbying and Public Awareness). The largest of its kind in the non-animal testing sector, the Lush Prize has already awarded £1.9 million to 93 winners in 28 countries. In addition, Lush’s Charity Pot initiative has in the last decade donated more than £20 million to over 850 grassroots charities in 42 countries, by providing 100%, excluding tax, the retail price of a body lotion sold year-round.

Troy Seidle, Humane Society International vice president for research and toxicology, said: “It’s truly an honor to present this award to my friends at Lush, who have been the greatest of allies in the global fight to end animal testing. The positive impacts arising from funding and other support that Lush provides for so many organizations working to protect animals, the environment and other worthy causes cannot be overstated.”

Other recipients of the 2017 Henry Spira Award for progress in other animal welfare areas include Gucci, Unilever, TGI Fridays, Nestlé USA and Pet Food Express.

Media Contact: Wendy Higgins at +44(0)7989 972 423

New Delhi—In a landmark decision that will spare the lives of thousands of seals from slaughter by commercial sealing industries, India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has banned the import of skins of seals. The notification was issued in the wake of exhaustive campaigning for the ban by Humane Society International/India and People for Animals in urging the Government of India to take a clear moral stand by closing its doors to the trade of seal products.

Every year, thousands of seals and defenseless seal pups suffer enormously as they are shot or clubbed to death for their fur and skin. India’s decision follows more than 36 countries that have banned trade in commercial seal products for animal welfare and conservation reasons, including the 28 European Union member states, the United States, Taiwan and Russia. In 2013 and 2014, the World Trade Organization twice upheld the rights of nations to prohibit seal product trade for animal welfare reasons.

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N.G. Jayasimha, managing director of HSI/India said; “We are delighted that our appeal to the Government of India to take a stand against this cruelty has produced a result after 4 long years. With dwindling world markets for seal products, the Canadian sealing industry is counting on countries like India and China to import the seal fur, oil and meat that other nations refuse to buy and I am glad that India has chosen compassion over cruelty. We are certain that this choice will be the last nail in the coffin for the sealing industry.”

Lauding this policy stance that is in consonance with the anti-cruelty laws of India, trustee of People for Animals and HSI/India’s government liaison, Gauri Maulekhi, said, “We commend the Directorate General of Foreign Trade for its firm commitment in abolishing the import of seal skins. The DGFT had previously prohibited the import of exotic skin and leather and import of foie gras, a liver extract of ducks.”

Facts:

• With more than two million seals killed since 2002, Canada’s commercial seal hunt is considered the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth.
• The seals are killed for their fur and, because the skins of young pups are most valuable, 98 percent are less than three months old at the time of slaughter.
• Veterinarians have called the methods of commercial sealing “inherently inhumane” and argue that prohibiting seal product trade is the most effective way to reduce the killing.
• The United States, the 28 countries of the European Union, Mexico, Russia and Taiwan have all prohibited trade in products of commercial seal hunts.
• In 2013 and 2014, the World Trade Organization twice upheld the rights of nations to prohibit seal product trade for animal welfare reasons.
• For the past several year, HSI has been the only NGO documenting the commercial seal hunt in Canada and the evidence we have gathered each year is crucial for keeping seal product markets closed.

Media Contact: Neelam Naseeb, nnaseeb@hsi.org, +919205104695

TOKYO—Humane Society International welcomes the March 30 decision of Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to abolish its requirement to conduct year-long poisoning tests on beagle dogs for pesticides such as weed killer. In these tests, as many as 32 dogs are fed pesticide-laced food every day for a year, then killed and their internal organs examined as part of a routine battery of tests conducted on thousands of animals for pesticide toxicity assessment.

The Ministry’s decision is based on the findings of a two-year scientific study prompted by Japan’s Food Safety Commission that showed year-long tests on dogs provided little value when determining safe exposure levels for humans and could therefore be waived in most cases. These findings are consistent with the results of similar past analyses that have led to changes in national regulatory test requirements, beginning in 2007 in the United States, followed by India, the European Union, Brazil and Canada. HSI has been at the forefront of negotiating many of these regulatory changes via its global network of country offices and programs.

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Troy Seidle, HSI vice president for research & toxicology, said, “We commend the Japanese government for eliminating this unnecessary and inhumane test from its pesticide data requirements, but are disappointed that it has taken some countries nearly 20 years to take action despite compelling scientific evidence. Better and more rapid global harmonization of pesticide data requirements and approaches to risk assessment are needed so that all countries swing into action immediately once a scientific case is established for the removal of an animal test requirement. It is unacceptable that dogs have been made to suffer needlessly for two decades simply because countries are dragging their feet.”

South Korea is believed to be the last major market still to require the one-year dog test for pesticides, underscoring the need to improve international regulatory alignment and strengthen collaborations to eliminate animal testing requirements. HSI is working to encourage all countries to participate fully in global efforts to develop non-animal approaches, share information, mutually accept data, and avoid future redundant studies.

Facts:

• Registration of a single new pesticide “active ingredient” (the poisonous component that makes it effective) can involve as many as 10,000 rodents, fish, birds, rabbits and dogs in dozens of separate chemical-poisoning tests according to regulatory requirements in most countries. Many of these tests are overtly redundant, repeating the same test procedure using two or more different animal species or routes of exposure (oral, inhalation, skin, etc.), the scientific value of which has come under intense scrutiny.
• The report commissioned by the Japanese government analyzed safety assessments of 286 pesticides and found that in nearly 95 percent of cases, the year-long dog study did not contribute essential information to the determination of a safe exposure for humans. This conclusion was identical to that of a previous study published by independent researchers who looked at one-year dog test data for 45 pesticides registered in Japan (“Relevance of the 1-year dog study in assessing human health risks for registration of pesticides. An update to include pesticides registered in Japan,” by Werner Kobel and colleagues, published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, volume 44/issue 10, 2014).
• Statistics published by the Japanese Society for Laboratory Animal Resources for the period April 2016 – March 2017 document the sale of 4.25 million animals for use in laboratory experiments (a figure that does not reflect use of animals bred in laboratories, or all facilities that breed or use animals for experiments in Japan).
• Statistics published by South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs document that since 2012, animal use in Korean laboratories has increased by a 157 percent to an all-time high of 2.88 million in 2016. Responses from Korea’s Rural Development Authority to information requests from National Assembly members confirm that dogs continue to be used to satisfy the government’s ongoing requirement for year-long dog tests for pesticides.

Media contacts:

• Japan: Sakiko Yamazaki, syamazaki@hsi.org
• Korea: Borami Seo, bseo@hsi.org
• International: Patricia Bishop, pbishop@hsi.org

SEOUL—South Korea’s National Assembly last week passed a bill revising the Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemical Substances (K-REACH) to require companies, the country’s Ministry of Environment and its subsidiaries to prioritize adopting alternative methods to animal testing. The initiative is based on a legislative proposal developed by Humane Society International (HSI) aimed at minimizing duplicative animal testing in Korea, and compelling a transition to available alternative approaches, a process which has been slow to date.

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Since K-REACH came into effect in 2015, HSI has uncovered evidence that the Korean government itself was funding repeat animal testing of chemicals instead of supporting data purchase agreements with international companies or consortia that possess existing test data for the chemicals in question. HSI and National Assembly member Ms. Jeong-ae Han have hosting several Assembly forums and round table discussion with stakeholders to call attention to this problem, end to urge the environmental authorities to advance their research budget in the development of more predictive and human-specific 21st century testing technologies such as organs-on-a-chip.

The revised law establishes a definition of “vertebrate animal alternative test” coupled with a legal responsibility for both business entities and government authorities to “prioritize vertebrate alternative testing when producing risk and hazard information for chemicals” (Articles 4 and 5), and specifying that “testing shall not be repeated for the same chemicals” (Article 16-2).

Borami Seo, HSI’s senior policy manager for Korea, said “This is significant in that policymakers and chemical regulatory bodies recognized, for the first time in the law, the importance of replacing cruel and outdated practice of animal testing. This will support more research into non-animal testing methods that will better predict human safety while saving tens of thousands of animals. We thank Congresswoman Han for leading this positive change for lab animals as well as everyone who signed HSI’s #ScienceWithoutSuffering petition in support of the bill.”

Media contact: Borami Seo, bseo@hsi.org

Hyderabad—Humane Society International/India and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, one of the country’s premier institutions for scientific research, have joined together to develop and promote a laboratory grown meat in India. Called “clean meat,” it is touted to be the next revolution in the way meat is produced.

By collaborating with the Atal Incubation Centre under CCMB, the partnership looks to promote the technology to develop clean meat while bringing start-ups and regulators together under the same roof. The effort to develop clean meat has emerged due to the unsustainable methods of large-scale industrial animal agriculture. The current intensive practices neglect basic animal welfare, and consequently pose a threat to the environment and food security.

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For consumers who have a dietary preference for animal meat clean meat can be consumed, while eliminating the drawbacks of the current meat consumption trends. Clean meat production requires far less land and water than conventional meat production and therefore alleviates repercussions of exponential climatic change. Clean meat technology obliterates the severe environmental damages resulting from poor waste management prevalent in current farming practices. The technology does not require antibiotics, produces no bacterial contamination and ensures the welfare of animals.

Dr. Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB said; “While technology exists to multiply literally any type of cell, including mammalian cells, the scaling up of the same in an economically affordable manner as a meat substitute remains a major challenge. There may also be cultural and social factors that will need to be addressed for this to be socially acceptable. Scaling up of cell multiplication at industrial scale is also desirable for upcoming era of bio-actives and bio-therapeutics that are expected to replace the chemical drugs in future. “Clean meat” grown ex-vivo also offers possibility of augmentation of the nutritional value by using genome editing technology and synthetic biology approaches.”

N.G. Jayasimha, managing director for HSI/India, said: “This is history in-the-making. Clean meat technology is taking the world by storm with even the biggest meat producers investing in companies developing clean meat. It is time India begins this dialogue, and we are honoured to have CCMB partner with us for first step we take in this direction. We are also grateful to Good Food Institute India for guiding us with their expertise on the technology.”

Media Contact: Neelam Naseeb, +91-9205104695, nnaseeb@hsi.org

Humane Society International, a leading international animal protection organization, officially launched “Don’t Buy Wild” (No compres fauna silvestre) campaign in Mexico. The campaign aims to reduce wildlife trafficking by urging people not to buy wild animals as pets or purchase wildlife products such as turtle eggs or wild bird feathers.

The campaign is supported by television and radio hosts Facundo Gómez, Franky Mostro and Jimena Rodríguez, as well as actress Sophie Alexander. The celebrities star in an HSI video released today urging people not to buy wild animals as pets.

Mexico is one of the countries with the greatest biodiversity in the world. Many of these species are endemic, so if they cease to exist here, they will disappear forever from the planet. The wildlife trade is a multi-billion dollar industry that threatens the survival of many species and causes the inhumane treatment of countless animals each year.

Rebecca Regnery, HSI Wildlfe Senior Director, said: “When shopping or traveling, you can find items made with animal parts and in some places wild animals are sold as pets. By acquiring wildlife or its products, such as turtle shells, or reptile or big cat skins, people contribute to the prosperity of the wildlife trafficking industry.”

Scarlet and green macaws, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, and sea turtles are some of the protected species in Mexico and therefore are traded illegally. At the rate of 77 percent, parrots captured for trade die during capture, storage, transport, distribution and sale before reaching the consumer.

Government agencies, including the Federal Environmental Attorney General, the Environmental Gendarmerie, Mexico City’s Animal Protection Agency, along with animal protection organizations Defenders of Wildlife and Teyeliz also support HSI’s campaign. The campaign, which includes the distribution of printed materials to educate the public about the issue, is sponsored by local wine company Proyecto Vinícola/Wine-Imal.

BAHIA, Brazil—Humane Society International in Brazil has teamed up with four cities in the northeastern state of Bahia—Serrinha, Barroca, Teofilandia and Biritinga—and the local Public Prosecutor Office, to transition all of the meals served at its public school cafeterias to 100 percent plant-based by the end of 2019, reducing meat, dairy and egg consumption by 25 percent per semester. This marks the first time in history that any school districts have committed to having exclusively plant-based cafeterias. The change will impact over 23 million meals a year.

The launch of the project, called “Escola Sustentável (Sustainable School),” took place on Monday, March 19th, and was followed by four days of plant-based culinary trainings for the cities’ school cooks, led by HSI’s Chef André Vieland. Chef André taught cooks how to prepare cost-effective, nutritious recipes, using accessible local ingredients. Escola Sustentável’s mission is to improve student health, reduce the cities’ environmental footprint (especially water consumption), and empower local farmers who will be able to supply the school districts with plant-based foods. Leticia Baird, Brazilian Public Prosecutor for the Environment in the State of Bahia, who led the creation of this program, stated: “Providing our school districts with plant-based meals will help save environmental and public financial resources, allow for a future of healthy adults, and build a fair world for the animals.”

Sandra Lopes, food policy manager for HSI in Brazil, stated: “We applaud the cities of Serrinha, Barroca, Teofilandia, and Biritinga for becoming the world’s first school districts to commit to going 100 percent plant-based. It’s an honor to have worked with city authorities, nutritionists and school cooks on the adoption and implementation of this initiative, and we’re excited to continue working closely with them to ensure the success of this program.”

A growing number of institutions in Brazil, including the Brazilian Ministry of Health and University of São Paulo’s School of Public Health, are recognizing that a reduction in meat consumption is necessary to help the environment and human health. In its 2014 Dietary Guidelines, the Brazilian Ministry of Health stated: “Opting to consume various types of plant-based foods and a limited consumption of animal products indirectly results in a food system that is more just and less stressful on the environment, animals and biodiversity in general.”

HSI promotes humane eating—or the 3 R’s: “reducing” or “replacing” consumption of animal products, and “refining” our diets by choosing products from sources that adhere to higher animal welfare standards.

Facts:

The São Paulo city school district, Brazil’s largest school district, has participated in Meatless Monday since 2009, serving more than half a million plant-based meals every two weeks.
• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, animal agriculture is one of the greatest contributors to the most serious environmental issues, like global warming, and is a major consumer of scarce water resources.
• Choosing plant-based foods helps human health. Many of the chronic diseases plaguing the world, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, can be prevented, treated and, in some cases, even reversed with a plant-based diet.
• According to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, Brazil is currently facing a new obesity and overweight epidemic, which is affecting over half of the population, including children. One in three Brazilian children between the ages of 5 and 9 is obese or overweight and face health risks as a result.
• Shifting to plant-based foods reduces animal suffering. Tens of millions of animals in food production in Brazil, like egg-laying hens and breeding sows, are intensively confined and spend their whole lives in cages so small they can barely even move.

Media Contact: Sandra Lopes, slopes@hsi.org, 11 9 8145-0764

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has just made history by unanimously approving a citywide ban on fur sales, effective January 2019. San Francisco joins West Hollywood, California, and Berkeley, California, in the U.S., Sao Paulo in Brazil, and India in adopting similar sale or import bans, but is the first major U.S. city to go fur-free. Humane Society International celebrates this historic vote for animals and compassionate consumerism, and congratulates all the organizations in California that worked so hard to achieve this ban.

Kitty Block, CEO of Humane Society International said: “San Francisco has today put itself on the map as a world-leading city in kind, progressive law making. The fur trade is responsible for the suffering and death of more than 100 million animals a year, either kept in tiny cages to be killed by gassing or electrocution, or trapped in the wild waiting hours or days to be shot, all for fashion. Today, San Francisco has said a resounding ‘no’ to that suffering, so this is an exciting and historic vote both for animals and compassionate consumerism, and we hope that the world is watching. Let’s see this ban replicated in cities, states and countries across the world.”

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The ban proposal was first put forward in December last year by San Francisco District Supervisor Katy Tang, urging the full Board to approve because “The sale of fur products in San Francisco is inconsistent with the City’s ethos of treating all living beings, humans and animals alike, with kindness.”

The ban takes effect Jan 1, 2019 – though retailers have until Jan 1, 2020 to sell any leftover fur merchandise that was purchased before 20 March 2018. Final passage of the ordinance takes place on March 27th when the Board is expected to endorse their vote, after which time it will be signed into law by Mayor Mark Farrell.

The ban applies to the sale, display and manufacturing of new fur apparel, meaning that all stores in the city will be fur-free by next year, including online purchases for delivery to San Francisco addresses. Second-hand shops may continue to sell vintage fur as long as it is not from an endangered species. With so many high quality faux fur options now available, San Francisco has an exciting opportunity to be a leader in cutting-edge faux fur design and innovation.

In recent months an increasing number of top designers have dropped fur from their collections – just last week Italian luxury brand Versace announced its decision to go fur-free, joining the likes of Gucci, Hugo Boss, Armani, Furla, Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo.

HSI is hoping that the San Francisco ban will encourage legislators globally to consider similar bans. In the United Kingdom where HSI/UK is leading the #FurFreeBritain campaign, members of parliament are holding a fur inquiry following HSI/UK’s call for a ban on fur sales, and Claire Bass, HSI/UK’s executive director will write to the British government urging Prime Minister May to follow San Francisco’s ethical lead.

Claire Bass noted: “Standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the most influential designers in the world, San Francisco is showing that animal fur is a fashion faux-pas that trend-setting San Franciscans simply will not tolerate. The vast majority of British people feel the same, and our campaign for a nationwide ban on the sale of fur in gaining momentum in the UK. For our government to realise its ambition of being ‘a world leader in animal welfare’ means closing our borders to the cruel, outdated and completely unnecessary fur trade.”

ENDS

Media contacts:

• USA: PJ Smith – pjsmith@humanesociety.org
• UK: Wendy Higgins – whiggins@hsi.org