SANTIAGO—Santiago residents on their way to work this week were greeted by several hundred stand-up paper bunnies urging them to support a proposed law to ban animal testing for cosmetics in Chile as well as the trade in cosmetics product and ingredients newly tested on animals. The action was organized by the #BeCrueltyFree Chile campaign, led by NGO Te Protejo and Humane Society International, to engage citizens and demonstrate to government the level of public support for this legal reform.

Bill No 10514-11, introduced in 2016 by the bipartisan group PARDA (Parlamentarios por la dignidad animal en Chile), would modify the Health Code to prohibit the use of animals in toxicity testing of cosmetic products or their individual ingredients in Chile, as well as the sale of cosmetics that been tested on animals abroad after the law change takes effect.

#BeCrueltyFree Chile spokesperson Camila Cortínez, General Director of NGO Te Protejo, said: “Animal testing in the cosmetic industry is an obsolete and inefficient practice and we are confident that Chile can become the 38th country to say no to animal testing.”

Facts:

• Chilean law neither requires nor prohibits animal testing for cosmetics. In 2016, the Institute of Public Health sold a total of 235,510 animals for laboratory testing, of which an unknown number were used in tests for the cosmetic industry.
• Animal testing for cosmetics has been fully or partially banned in 37 countries, including the nations of the European Union, Norway, Switzerland, Israel, India, New Zealand, South Korea, Turkey, Taiwan, Guatemala and five states in Brazil.
• #BeCrueltyFree Chile is supported by leading cruelty-free beauty brands including LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, together with Chilean artists, musicians, actors and television presenters including Polo Ramiez, Pedro Engel, Paloma Jiménez and Elvira Cristi.

Media contact: Nicole Valdebenito, +56 9 8937 6741, nicole@teprotejo.cl