Likud Knesset Member Gideon Sa’ar submitted on Monday two proposals aimed at putting an end to animal testing
in the cosmetics industry.
The first bill calls for a ban on the importing of cosmetic or cleaning products that have been tested on animals, while the second calls to completely forbid such testing in Israel.
Sa’ar told Ynetnews that his daughter Daniella, a ninth-grader at the Nature, Environment and Society School in Tel Aviv, was behind the initiative.
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“She didn’t have to work too hard to convince me (to submit the proposals); I certainly identify with this issue,” he said.
As of today the law permits cosmetic products to be tested on animals in what the National Council on Animal Experimentation considers “exceptional” cases.
“Animal testing in the production of cosmetics products entails extreme suffering and is carried out without the use of pain killers,” Sa’ar’s proposal states. “It is estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 animals are used during the examination of a single product, and they all die an excruciating death.”
In March 2004 the European Parliament passed a similar bill that bans the importing and marketing of cosmetic products that have been tested on animals; the law is set to take effect in 2009.
“The animals used in these tests - mainly gerbils, dogs, monkeys, rabbits and mice - are poisoned until they die,” Anat Refua of Let Animals Live said. “They are forcefully injected with chemicals through the mouth, nose and blood cells, and burning substances are tested on their eyes, sometimes blinding them.
“Humanitarian and reliable alternatives are in existence and more than 600 global cosmetics companies have stopped using animals in the development of their products,” she said.
“We praise Sa’ar’s proposals, for the sake of the animals and humanity.”
Sa’ar’s bill slams the National Council on Animal Experimentation for not approving alternatives to animal testing in the cosmetics industry.
“The council’s supervision over animal testing in the country is missing,” the bill states.
Sa’ar said it was too early to estimate whether the bill would be approved, but added that “It is possible to form a broad front of Knesset Members to support the initiative by the first plenum reading on the matter, which is scheduled for mid-January.”
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