Sign for cruelty-free cosmetics! Save millions of animals from new proposed tests


6 July 2022

New animal experiments threaten to be introduced to test ingredients used in our toothpaste, shampoo, sun cream, and other cosmetics. This would condemn millions of animals to cruel and unnecessary experiments. But it can be stopped if 1 million European citizens raise their voice and sign the European Citizen Initiative to Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics before the end of August. Join all parties for the animals across the EU, over 100 animal welfare organizations, and cruelty free cosmetic companies The Body Shop and Dove to help stop animal experiments for once and for all.

Dutch Party for the Animals taking part in a protest against animal experiments in the Netherlands. Text on banner: Replace animal experiments.

The Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics initiative – signed by almost 710.000 European citizens by now – was launched last autumn in response to new demands for mandatory animal experiments. If one million signatures are reached before the end of August, the citizens’ requests will be high on the European Commission’s agenda and the Commission is obliged to officially respond. As previous citizen initiatives have shown, this can help change the law.

What is at stake
Testing cosmetics on animals was banned in 2009, and a ban on the sale of animal-tested cosmetics was introduced in 2013 after decades of campaigning by animal advocate organizations and a successful citizen initiative. However, the ground-breaking new law that was obtained back then, turns out to leave room for animal experimentation with certain ingredients. And this even threatens to become mandatory.

The thing is, as animal advocates argue, most of these ingredients have already been proven safe, and there are plenty of alternatives to animal testing that assure the safety of people and environment without torturing and sacrificing animals. Should the demand for new experiments be accepted, producing cosmetics without using ingredients that are tested on animals becomes impossible – even for brands which are now cruelty-free. This would render the earlier ban on animal experiments for cosmetics useless and condemn millions of animals to miserable lives in laboratories and painful or even deadly experiments.

Sign now to end animal experiments!

The Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics initiative calls upon the European Commission to protect and strengthen the cosmetics animal testing ban. It requests the Commission to outlaw testing cosmetic ingredients on animals for any purpose at any time. What is more, it urges the Commission to commit to a concrete plan to phase out all animal testing in the EU before the end of 2024. A proposal to this end by MEP Anja Hazekamp of the Dutch Party for the Animals was adopted in European Parliament last autumn, but has not yet been made into law by the European Commission.

A successful initiative, signed by 1 million people, can stop new experiments -and- decisively push the Commission to finally put an end to animal experiments in Europe altogether.

Let’s make this happen: sign before the 31st of August and spread the word!

What we stand for

Animal rights