Global Courant
If you walk into a drugstore and walk through the shampoo or makeup aisles, you’re bound to find products that contain ingredients that have been tested on animals.
When Canada’s ban on cosmetic testing on animals goes into effect in December, those products will remain on store shelves.
The amended law has no retroactive effect. It focuses on banning new animal testing in Canada and the sale of products that rely on new animal testing data.
“As we’re in this in-between phase, moving from a time when it wasn’t banned… to a time when it’s banned, there’s going to be products that you don’t know about” if they’re cruelty-free or not, said Liz White, director of Animal Alliance Canada.
She’s been lobbying the governments of Canada and Ontario for three decades to pass animal testing legislation, and she’s happy with the outcome.
“It’s been an uphill battle to get governments to actually consider it,” White said. “But I think times are changing and there are more non-animal testing mechanisms now.”
Canada’s amendments to the Food and Drugs Act, passed June 22, also make it illegal for companies to falsely claim that products are cruelty-free.
Health Canada said it is developing industry guidelines and will rely on a complaints-based approach for how it enforces compliance. White says consumers should keep this in mind when shopping.
“I think that’s something we need to look out for and make sure that the legislation is properly implemented and monitored and that companies that might go astray – which I hope won’t – we’ll get behind,” he said. White.
LOOK | What you need to know about Canada’s ban:
What Canada’s ban on cosmetic testing on animals means for products on store shelves
Canada has just banned cosmetic testing on animals and the sale of products that rely on new animal testing data. So what does that mean for cosmetics already sold in stores?
What is Animal Testing?
According to The Humane Society, shampoo, deodorant, and lipstick are some of the products that may contain chemicals that have been tested on animals, but it depends on the brand.
White says companies rarely test finished products on animals anymore. The biggest concern for animal rights activists is testing the preservatives and other chemicals used in the products.
She said the most common animals used in this type of testing are rats, mice, rabbits and guinea pigs.
Several tests have been used to meet previous regulatory requirements, including toxicity tests that would look for a reaction to a chemical on a piece of an animal’s shaved skin.
For example, in an LD50 test, an animal is forced to ingest a chemical to see if there are any effects. During a Draize test, a chemical is tested on a rabbit’s eye for irritability.
“It’s pretty painful stuff, and it’s pretty awful,” White said.
Guinea pigs, rats, mice, rabbits and guinea pigs have historically been some of the most commonly used animals for cosmetic testing. (Brian Gunn/Animal Alliance of Canada)
Cosmetics Alliance Canada, the organization that represents the cosmetics industry and consulted on the amended law, said companies have already moved away from this type of testing.
“However, I think it’s really symbolic that we’re recognizing it in legislation,” Cosmetics Alliance Canada president Darren Praznik said at a press conference in Toronto on June 27.
Dozens of new animal-free tests have been developed that are already being used by the industry, including tests using reconstructed human skin, computer models, and even the corneas of the eyes of slaughtered cattle.
Many companies also use raw ingredients that have been tested for safety in the past, in some cases on animals, rather than buying recently developed chemicals that need to be tested again.
Many of these ingredients are on the so-called General Regarded As Safe (GRAS) list, which lists thousands of raw materials, such as glycerin and niacinamide.
Why not retest products on store shelves?
When asked about a complete ban on all products that have been tested on animals in the past, Praznik said there is no point testing them again when they have been used by humans for decades.
“The law requires you to be able to demonstrate safety. You have 10, 20 years of human use safety data. So that’s really your justification, because (the products) have been on (the) market,” Praznik said.
“You can’t go back to what was done 30 years ago.”
The Leaping Bunny Program app allows consumers to check whether brands are cruelty-free. Companies must pledge to end animal testing at all stages of product development as a requirement of their certification program. (Roxanna Woloshyn/CBC)
White agrees, pointing out that the industry now considers some products that have been sold for decades to be cruelty-free because they rely on old data and didn’t require recent animal testing.
But Hilary Jones, LUSH Global’s director of ethics, said the ban could go further. She doesn’t think companies should be able to rely on historical animal testing data to meet regulatory requirements.
“We don’t believe it’s scientific to test on animals. It’s a very blunt, old-fashioned tool… We’d like to see all cosmetics go through new methods,” Jones said.
How do you shop cruelty-free?
Health Canada does not require universal labeling that tells a consumer whether a product is cruelty-free.
Instead, under the new legislation, companies will continue to decide how to list claims on their labels, as long as the claims can be proven.
“It’s really important to do your homework and figure out if you don’t want to buy products that have been tested on animals…and buy carefully,” White said.
So, how do you do that?
White proposes to check Beauty without bunniesthe cruelty-free database of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), or using the Leaping Bunny program app, which allows you to scan a product’s barcode.
Products that meet PETA or the Leaping Bunny Program requirements may have a rabbit logo in their label. (Roxanna Woloshyn/CBC)
Both have their own comprehensive standards that must be met in order to be certified cruelty-free.
Products that meet PETA or Leaping Brown Bunny requirements may even have a rabbit logo on their label.
What are other countries doing?
Canada will become the 44th country to ban cosmetic testing on animals when the legislation goes into effect later this year.
The European Union was an early adopter. The 27 Member States have banned animal testing for cosmetics since 2009. A few years later, it made it illegal to sell products that use animal testing in those countries.
Before a company can use the Leaping Bunny cruelty-free logo, it must forensically examine the entire supply chain, including all raw materials and individual ingredients, for animal testing. (Roxanna Woloshyn/CBC)
Other countries followed, including Israel, Australia and South Korea. But in many other countries, animal testing is still legal.
“Hopefully we’ll get the United States to become the 45th (to ban it) and so forth, because the United States is clearly a big economy and a big cosmetic economy,” White said.
China may still require animal testing in finished products before they can hit the market, but White notes it’s slowly moving away from that, too.
Ultimately, she hopes that Canada’s work to ban animal testing doesn’t stop at cosmetics and personal care products. White has set her sights on the drug industry.
“We need to figure out — and the drug companies are really working on this — how we can do better without animal testing and how we can get regulators to change those requirements,” White said.
