Cosmetic testing on animals will become illegal if the House of Commons passes the Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act as a law in the next few months.
Bill S-214 was passed by the Senate on June 19 and has moved back to the House of Commons for final approval.
If made a law, the act will prohibit all cosmetic testing, including new ingredients. However, Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor will be able to permit animal testing if it is necessary for human health standards.
Liz White, campaign manager for the Animal Alliance of Canada said the organization, as well as Humane Society Canada and International, are responsible for pushing this legislation. She added this is a win for animal rights groups across the country.
White said she is pleased the Senate passed the legislation, with unaniomous support. She hopes it will be a smooth transition into finally making cosmetic testing on animals illegal in Canada.
The bill was first introduced as the #BeCruetlyFree campaign supported by organizations such as the Animal Alliance of Canada, LUSH Cosmetics and Humane Society International. It included a petition signed by more than 630,000 Canadians to stop the testing of animals for cosmetic purposes.
Other countries such as Israel, South Korea, New Zealand, and 27 countries part of the European Union have laws prohibiting cosmetic testing on animals. Canada is one of the last developed countries to pass this law.
“The problem with Canada is that it is far behind many other countries in terms of animal welfare, animal protection, and environmental legislation,” White said.
White added the bill needs to be passed before June 2019 when Parliament rises and a new national election takes place.
“If we don’t get it passed then, I think we’ll have to start all over again,” she said.
White is hoping this will be the beginning of a conversation on animal cruelty.
Amanda Nordstrom, company liaison for PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies program said she believes if this bill passes, it will start a conversation to create a ‘cruelty-free’ world.
“We’ve seen the rise of public awareness about the horror’s of animal testing,” Nordstrom said. “We think this will be a step in the right direction to inspire other countries, other states, other regions to also adopt similar bans.”
Michele Thorn, an organizer for the Ottawa Animal Defense League agrees with Nordstrom, adding this bill is a start for prevention of animal cruelty.
“It’s taking a little bit of a bite out of the industry and that’s a good thing because they’ll have to find better ways to test products that don’t involve animals,” Thorn said.“Technology is so advanced. There are so many ways to test products now.”
There are many alternative methods in order to avoid testing on animals, as said in a review article by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative methods. Other methods include the use of technological models, human studies, and communication between animal testers to avoid further testing on animals.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, animals tested on are exposed to extreme pain and harm. This includes skin and eye irritation tests without pain relief, force-feeding animals for signs of illness, and animals are “forced to swallow large amounts of a test chemical to determine the dose that causes death.”
White said the Alliance’s next steps are to present other pieces of legislation in order to stop animal cruelty completely.
Companies are still permitted to use animals as test subjects until the bill is passed as a law by the House.