Yesterday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation (A.5653B/S.4839B) to prevent the sale of cosmetics that have been newly tested on animals. Passage of this law will prevent the cruel and unnecessary use of rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and rats to test cosmetic products if they are sold in New York.
Animals who are experimented on for cosmetics suffer through painful testing. Rabbits have chemicals dripped into their eyes or rubbed onto their shaved skin. Guinea pigs and mice have substances smeared onto their skin to determine allergic responses. Rats are forced to ingest large amounts of chemicals to determine the “lethal dose” that eventually causes death. Pain relief is rarely provided, and the animals are killed at the end of these experiments.
“With Governor Hochul’s signature on this legislation, New York State officially recognizes that cosmetics testing on animals should be a thing of the past, and has joined the growing number of states and companies calling for a stop to these experiments,” said Brian Shapiro, New York state director for the Humane Society of the United States. “With the increasing availability of non-animal test methods and thousands of existing ingredients, there is no excuse to continue harming animals for the sake of products such as shampoo, aftershave or mascara. We thank Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal and Sen. Alessandra Biaggi for their leadership on this issue and Gov. Hochul for signing A.5653B/S.4839B into law. Now it is up to Congress to pass the Humane Cosmetics Act to bring about a consistent standard for ending cosmetics animal testing across the country.”
New York has now become the tenth state in the country to pass a law to ban the sale of animal-tested cosmetics following California, Hawai'i, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia. The state laws closely mirror the provisions of the federal Humane Cosmetics Act.
Testing cosmetics on animals is both cruel and unnecessary because companies can already create innovative products using thousands of ingredients that have a history of safe use and do not require any additional testing. Plus, modern testing methods (such as human cell-based tests and sophisticated computer models) have replaced outdated animal tests. These non-animal technologies are often faster, less expensive and more reliable predictors of human safety.
There is strong corporate support for ending cosmetics animal testing. Several companies selling cosmetics in New York signed on in support of this legislation, including Captain Blankenship, Kahina Giving Beauty, Kazani, Lush, Rezo Haircare and The Good Home Co.