Thank you for your support
After a decade of campaigning, we are thrilled that the Canadian government has officially passed legislation to end cosmetic animal testing and trade.
The government passed measures through the Budget Implementation Act (Bill C-47), introduced earlier this year. In addition to banning cosmetics animal testing, the amendments will also prohibit selling cosmetics that rely on new animal testing data to establish the product’s safety, and false or misleading labelling pertaining to the testing of cosmetics on animals.
Monica Engebretson, our Head of Public Affairs North America, said: “Cruelty Free International applauds the Canadian Government for taking action to fulfil the wishes of the vast majority of Canadian citizens who supported a ban on animal testing for cosmetics. This has been a unifying issue that has earned cross-party support in Canada and will match the progress we are seeing around the world as consumers, companies, regulators and advocates come together to achieve a common goal of ensuring that animals won’t suffer for the sake of cosmetics anywhere.”
Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, Government of Canada, said: “Testing cosmetics on animals is both cruel and unnecessary. That is why we are proud to move forward on our promise to ban cosmetic animal testing and trade. Protecting animals now and in the future is something many Canadians have been advocating for and now, we can all be assured that cosmetics in Canada are cruelty-free, and we will continue to take all necessary measures to improve animal welfare.”
We were joined in celebrating this historic move with our campaign partner The Body Shop as well as Cosmetics Alliance Canada, Humane Society International/Canada, Animal Alliance Canada, and Lush Cosmetics.
Hilary Lloyd, Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Responsibility, The Body Shop North America, said: “Since the launch of The Body Shop's first ‘against animal testing’ initiative in 1989, and our campaigns that have followed, we're thrilled to finally see this effort materialize in Canada. We applaud Minister Duclos and Health Canada for bringing forth this legislation and thank all who have made this change possible, notably our partners at Cruelty Free International and The Body Shop’s passionate retail teams and activist customers, who delivered over 625,000 signatures to Parliament Hill in 2018 calling for this change.”
Thank you to everyone who has signed our petitions and contacted your MP over the past decade to help achieve this milestone.
Here is a look back at our long road to victory with our campaign partner The Body Shop.
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