Meet RalphRalph-the-rabbit is a tester—one of untold thousands of rabbits and other animals used each year in government-required chemical-poisoning tests for cosmetics and their ingredients. “Save Ralph” combines empathetic storytelling with the magic of stop-motion animation and performances by an A-list multinational cast in the next phase of Humane Society International’s global campaign to outlaw cosmetic animal testing once and for all. |
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Call to prohibit animal testing for cosmetics made or sold in your country.
Sadly, no. Although most major beauty brands haven’t animal-tested in years (or even decades), and the practice is now banned in 43 nations, most countries simply look the other way. What’s worse, chemical laws are increasingly being used to require new animal testing—even in places like Europe where such testing is supposed to be banned!
Ralph was used in the so-called Draize test–a crude and cruel procedure developed more than 70 years ago to evaluate chemical irritation to the eyes and skin, without pain relief. Today, the test is still used in some countries, even though superior non-animal approaches (like L’Oréal’s Episkin™ reconstructed human skin model) are readily available, and proven to outperform rabbit tests for assuring cosmetic safety.
Cosmetic ingredients (and less commonly, products) may be subject to the same sorts of animal tests as any other chemicals. This can include forcing rats to swallow massive amounts of a test chemical to determine the dose that causes death, and repeated force-feeding studies lasting weeks or months to look for signs of general illness or specific health hazards. Some tests use hundreds, and even thousands, of animals to test a single chemical, without pain relief. At the end of a test the animals are killed, normally by asphyxiation with carbon dioxide gas, neck-breaking or decapitation.
“Cosmetic animal testing” can include testing of a finished product like a shampoo or deodorant, or the chemical ingredients in cosmetic formulation, such as dyes or preservatives—or both.
Companies–like the rest of us–must obey the law, and unfortunately some chemical laws are being used to require ingredient suppliers to commission new animal tests for cosmetic chemicals. Some ingredient companies are pushing back, with administrative and legal challenges on the grounds that Europe’s chemical law stipulates that animal testing may only be performed as a “last resort.” Some of the world’s leading cosmetic and consumer product brands– Lush, Unilever, P&G, Avon and L’Oréal–are also pushing back, working in cooperation with HSI to call on the EU to uphold its cosmetic animal testing ban.
Read our factsheet.
