Tell Avon, Mary Kay and Estée Lauder to STOP testing on animals

Originally Posted: February 21, 2012

Tell Avon, Mary Kay and Estée Lauder to STOP testing on animals

[Ed. Note: Also read Animal testing in China: PETA removes Avon, Estee Lauder and Mary Kay from cruelty-free list and UNCAGED forces Avon to retract fraudulent cruelty-free claims.]

FROM People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

ACTION

Let Avon, Mary Kay, and Estée Lauder know that you are disappointed in their backsliding and that you will no longer buy the companies' products as long they are tested on animals.

Sign an online petition:
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3859

And/or better yet, make direct contact:

Mary Kay Cosmetics
Mary Kay Inc.
P.O. Box 799045
Dallas, Texas 75379-9045
(800) MARY KAY (627-9529)

Estee Lauder
online contact form: http://www.esteelauder.com/customer_service/contact.tmpl
customer service (877) 311-3883

Avon
Global Headquarters
1345 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10105
customer service (800) 367-2866
email dearavon@avon.com

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

From MaryKay.com website:

Mary Kay does not support animal testing. Mary Kay is committed to the elimination of animal testing and is a strong advocate of utilizing alternative methods to substantiate the safety of our ingredients and products. We do not conduct animal testing on our products or ingredients, nor do we ask others to do so on our behalf, except when absolutely required by law. For more than two decades, we have been a global leader in helping to develop alternative testing methods for product safety. This commitment continues today, in partnership with global regulatory agencies that manage cosmetic safety, with animal advocacy groups and with leading animal alternative researchers in an effort to gain global acceptance of these new approaches.

From EsteeLauder.com website:

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is committed to the elimination of animal testing. We are equally committed to consumer health and safety, and bringing to market products that comply with applicable regulations in every country in which our products are sold. We do not conduct animal testing on our products or ingredients, nor ask others to test on our behalf, except when required by law. We evaluate our finished products in clinical tests on volunteer panels. Estée Lauder fully supports the development and global acceptance of non-animal testing alternatives. To this end, the Company works extensively with the industry at large and the global scientific community to research and fund these alternatives.

From AvonCompany.com website:

The safety of our consumers is of primary concern to Avon. We are committed to selling only safe products, using only safe ingredients in our cosmetics products and complying with applicable regulations in the more than 100 countries in which Avon products are sold. Within this commitment, we also have a deep respect for animal welfare.

In June 1989 Avon announced a permanent end to animal testing of our products, including testing done in outside laboratories. Avon was the first major cosmetic company in the world to end animal testing.

For more than 20 years Avon has independently substantiated the safety of its products without animal testing.

Avon does not conduct nor request animal testing in order to substantiate the safety or efficacy of any of its products or raw ingredients.

From PETA:

For more than two decades, Avon, Mary Kay, and Estée Lauder have been among the largest mainstream international companies on PETA's cruelty-free lists. Avon banned all tests on animals following PETA's massive "Avon Killing" campaign, and Mary Kay pledged to go cruelty-free after cartoonist Berkeley Breathed mocked the company in his popular Bloom County comic strip. Since then, all three companies have enjoyed the support of PETA and millions of consumers who choose to buy cosmetics from companies that don't harm animals. But now we have learned that all three companies have been paying for tests on animals at the requirement of the Chinese government—and they did not inform PETA or consumers that their policies had changed. We have no choice but to downgrade them by placing them on our list of companies that test on animals.

When we learned that the Chinese government requires tests on animals before many cosmetics products can be marketed in China, we immediately contacted all three companies. While we understand that China is an enormous market that these companies aren't willing to ignore, we had hoped they would take action to eliminate this requirement or push for non-animal test methods to be accepted. Mary Kay had taken some steps to work with officials in China, and at our urging, promised to continue this effort—but Avon and Estée Lauder appear to have gone along with the painful animal tests without objection.

PETA is financially supporting the efforts of the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS), which is putting together a coalition of corporate experts, providing training for scientists in China in the use of non-animal test methods, and working with officials there to promote the acceptance of non-animal methods that are used in the U.S., the European Union, and much of the world.

To locate cosmetic companies that do not test on animals click here and here. (Check back on those links OFTEN for updates!)

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Thank you for everything you do for animals!