Commit to a Europe without animal testing

WE DID IT! 1,413,383 signatures

The Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics European Citizens' Initiative closed on 31 August 2022 with 1,413,383 signatures collected in one year.

European citizens have demanded an end to the harmful use of animals in cosmetics and other chemical tests, as well as an ambitious plan to bring all experiments on animals to an end.

Stay tuned on the next steps by reading the latest news and signing up for our emails.

European Citizens' Initiative

Across Europe, millions of animals are used in science each year in tests that frequently inflict suffering, which can be severe, but seldom deliver on their main promise, which is better health for humans. They include mice, fish, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs and monkeys.

We need this suffering to end – for the animals and for better medicine, better product safety and better environmental protection.

We want to see humane, human-relevant, animal-free science properly funded and fully utilised.

That’s why we need you to join us and sign a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) calling on the European Commission to:

•  PROTECT AND STRENGTHEN THE COSMETICS ANIMAL TESTING BAN

•  TRANSFORM EU CHEMICALS REGULATION TO END CRUEL TOXICITY TESTING

•  PUT FORWARD A CONCRETE PLAN TO TRANSITION TO NON-ANIMAL SCIENCE

Did you think that animal testing for cosmetics was already banned in the EU? Tests on animals for cosmetic products and their ingredients were banned in Europe in 2009, and a ban on the sale of animal-tested cosmetics has been in place since 2013. We fought hard, with you and Members of the European Parliament, for those bans. However, despite the bans, the European Chemicals Agency is demanding new tests on animals for ingredients – even those used exclusively in cosmetics and ingredients with long-established safe use.

Did you know that the EU’s new Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability could mean millions more tests on animals? The new Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability includes revising European chemicals laws. Its goal is a toxic-free environment. But using animal tests to fill information gaps about chemicals will just lead to even more cruel animal testing and unreliable results that will not benefit human health or our environment.

Are you one of the 72%* of Europeans who agree that Europe needs a concrete plan to bring animal experiments to an end? Thank you! The number of experiments on animals has not changed by much over the past decade, despite incredible advances in science and assurances from Europe’s decision-makers that their goal is to replace animal tests. In all sorts of other important policy areas that citizens care about – climate emissions, for example – the EU has set bold and ambitious targets to drive change. That’s what animals need too.

We are working together with Cruelty Free Europe, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, Eurogroup for Animals, HSI/Europe and PETA to end animal testing in the EU. But we need you and all your compassionate friends – a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) needs over one million valid signatures to succeed. An ECI shows the European Commission that citizens care and want change – it is a mechanism for people to demand new legislation.

Thank you for making your voices – and the voices of animals in laboratories – heard.

*comresglobal.com