New York, Jan 25: In an unusual scenario, eight dogs in New York were made to protest infront of the United Nations headquarters against cosmetic testing on animals, as part of a campaign by The Body Shop and Cruelty Free International, which works to end animal experiments.
In the world’s first animal protest, eight dogs of different breeds were trained to stand outside the UN headquarters with miniature banners around their neck displaying messages such as ‘Ban Animal Testing’ and ‘Down With Cruel Cosmetics’.
As per a Humane Society International report, that works across issues of inhumane practices against animals, cosmetic testing harms about 2 lakh animals every year with majority of them losing lives due to adverse effects of chemicals.
“We designed the campaign in June 2017 with a target of 8 million signatures to be presented to the United Nations and about 4.1 million signatures have been gathered so far,” The Body Shop India Marketing Head Aradhika Mehta said in a statement.
The campaign titled ‘Forever Against Animal Testing’ is jointly undertaken by The Body Shop and Cruelty Free International, an organisation that works to end testing on animals. Although a few countries including India have banned animal testing for examining safety and hypoallergenic properties of products to be used by humans, 80 per cent of countries still have no laws against cosmetic animal tests.
“It is indeed ironical that on one hand we keep dogs for their loyalty and call them human being’s best friend, on the other hand we make them subject to such cruelty who cannot speak for themselves,” Mehta said. Once the petition reaches 8 million signatures, The Body Shop and Cruelty Free International will present it to the United Nations, calling for an international convention to ban animal testing on cosmetics to protect millions of animals around the world.
Usually, animal tests for cosmetics include skin and eye irritation tests where chemicals are rubbed onto the shaved skin or dripped into the eyes, repeated oral force-feeding studies lasting weeks or months to look for signs of general illness or specific health hazards, such as cancer or birth defects, the report by Humane Society International says.
PTI
