A petition demanding the end to animal-testing for cosmetic purposes is the largest petition delivered to Ottawa in 70 years.
Animals lovers marched on the nations' capital this morning to hand over an almost 640-thousand-name petition demanding passage of Bill S-214 -- the Cruelty-free Cosmetic Act sponsored by New Brunswick Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen.
Cruelty Free International and a consortium of animal welfare groups are supporting the bill. Liz White is with the Animal Alliance of Canada.
She says the European Union and 8 other countries have already enacted similar bills to stop cruel practices in the name of cosmetics -- including the "Draize test" which involves dropping substances into the eyes of rabbits to study the effects:
" So the amount of ulceration on the eye, so they study all of that. They do what they call the "LD50" (lethal dose 50 percent). That is you feed either by inhalation or ingestion a substance until 50% of the animals die, that gives you a level of toxicity of a substance. That's still conducted."
It's estimated more than 500-thousand animals are still used worldwide in cosmetics testing each year.
White says other nations have successfully banned animal testing for cosmetic purposes -- including the European Union in 2013 -- and it's time for Canada to ensure our cosmetics are cruelty free:
" And I think that people would really like to see it stopped. And given that the European Union cosmetic industry, which is the largest in the world, is so successful, even after the ban of doing it in European Union and importing into the European Union, given its level of success I think there is simply no argument anymore as to why one might keep on doing this."
Bill S-214 is in 3rd reading and is expected to head to parliament in the next few weeks.
White says if you are interested in learning which cosmetic companies have earned the "leaping bunny" cruelty-free logo, you can check out the website at leapingbunny.org