Avon, Mary Kay and Estée Lauder Testing on Animals Again
For more than two decades, Avon, Mary Kay, and Estée Lauder have been among the largest mainstream international companies to not test their cosmetic products on animals. But the animal rights group PETA is reporting that all three companies have been paying for tests on animals in order to satisfy the requirements of the Chinese government.
China requires tests on animals before many cosmetics products can be marketed there, and since it’s an enormous market, the temptation to go along with this requirement is quite strong – too strong for these three companies.
The Institute for In Vitro Sciences is working to train scientists in China in the use of non-animal test methods, and to promote the kinds of non-animal methods that are used in the U.S., the European Union, and elsewhere.
More than 1,000 companies are on the PETA “Don’t Test” list, but right now Avon, Mary Kay and Estée Lauder are not among them.