Monica Engebretson: Why Does the US Still Test on Animals for Cosmetics, Even Though 44 Other Countries Have Banned It?

"When we do polls on this, we've got all political parties high support for ending cosmetics animal testing, from Republicans, Independents, Democrats - age gaps between the boomers and the zoomers, everybody is in agreement. You know, it's one of those issues that you cannot get more unity on a single issue." – Monica Engebretson   Monica Engebretson is the North American head of public affairs for Cruelty Free International, the leading organization working to end animal testing worldwide. They are working to end all animal testing, but for this conversation, we focused on cosmetics – for two reasons: we've done many episodes on animals used in medical research and experimentation and not enough on cosmetics and because I think many people are unaware that even we still test for cosmetics.   In the US, it's no longer required by law that cosmetic companies test on animals, yet we are still doing it. It makes no sense that we have not banned cosmetics testing. Canada has. Mexico has. In fact, 44 other countries have. I wanted Monica to explain how and why this is still happening – and the answers are complicated.    The good news is that last month, the Humane Cosmetics Act was reintroduced and if passed, it would end safety testing of cosmetic products on animals and prohibit the sale of products developed using animal testing in the United States.   Please listen and share and then, if you live in the US please make a phone call to your Senators and Representatives and politely ask them to support the Humane Cosmetics Act. Find yours here: usa.gov/elected-officials   Links:  SpeciesUnite.com www.crueltyfreeinternational.org