Hundreds of Animals Saved After Appeal Ruling Agrees With PETA Scientists
One of the many ways in which PETA scientists, through the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd., work to promote non-animal testing methods is by supporting companies in their appeals against requests from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to conduct animal tests – and we’ve had another success!
We’re delighted that the ECHA Board of Appeal has rejected a decision by ECHA requiring BASF Personal Care and Nutrition GmbH to conduct a chemical test using hundreds of animals. The test would have involved force-feeding high concentrations of a cosmetics ingredient to pregnant rats or rabbits before dissecting them and their unborn offspring. The Science Consortium argued successfully that ECHA failed to consider the implications of the EU Cosmetics Regulation, which prevents companies from relying on animal-testing data to demonstrate the safety of cosmetics.
The Science Consortium proved instrumental in supporting BASF through the appeal, and Dr Julia Baines, PETA’s science policy adviser and adviser to the Science Consortium, spoke out in support of animals at the appeal hearing, stating that ECHA’s reasoning for the requested test was neither ethical nor legally robust.
The Board agreed with the Science Consortium, correctly recognising that ECHA has a duty to take into account the implications of the Cosmetics Regulation in its administration of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals regulation. As noted by the Board, failure to do so could result in circumstances in which “the testing would have served no purpose, the costs generated would have been unnecessary and animals sacrificed unnecessarily“.
Please remember, though, that many chemicals used in cosmetics, cleaning products, and other household goods are tested on animals. You can ensure that the products you buy are cruelty-free by checking the PETA US database:
