Amazon: Stop Exposing Animals to Toxic Chemicals for Makeup

Target: Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com

Goal: Tell Amazon to stop selling cosmetics brands that conduct inhumane tests on animals.

Amazon is a multinational technology company that doubles as one of the largest online retailers in the entire world. Billions of people flock to the site each year for quicker and more economical alternatives to commodities offered on websites and in person stores. Despite its monopoly on thousands of brands and products, Amazon still seemingly chooses to encourage animal cruelty through the sale of animal tested cosmetics.

Cosmetic testing is a type of testing that subjects animals to painful and often life-threatening experiments in the name of “ensuring human safety.” Animals such as bunnies, guinea pigs, mice, and rats are repeatedly exposed to chemicals in skin and eye irritation tests. These toxic ingredients are rubbed onto shaved skin, force-fed and dripped into the eyes of restrained animals. Other tests, known as “lethal dose tests,” are performed by forcing rats to swallow copious amounts of chemicals to determine which dose will kill the subject. All of this is done without any pain relief or anesthetics. Experiments like these can sometimes last for months, allowing researchers to view the longer-term effects of different ingredients. After experiments are finished, animals are killed by means of decapitation or asphyxiation.

These tests, however, are not required by law or FDA regulations, and companies instead conduct these evil tests voluntarily. There are already thousands of pre-existing ingredients we know to be safe for human use, and testing additional products is highly unnecessary. Animal testing is also a highly unreliable method of ensuring product safety, as animals have different biologies compared to humans, and often respond very differently to various ingredients and doses.

Animal cosmetic testing is already banned in multiple countries including Columbia, the UK, India, Israel, and Norway, though no such bans exist in the U.S.. Sign this petition to demand Amazon stop selling these animal tested products, while encouraging customers to engage with just as effective, cruelty free options instead.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Mr. Bezos,

Millions of animals are forced to endure torturous experiments to safe proof slews of inessentual cosmetic products, such as makeup and skincare formulas. Animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, and rats are forcibly fed toxic chemicals to determine which doses are lethal for a biological agent. Other experiments include rubbing potentially harmful compounds onto animals’ bare skin and dripping these same ingredients into animals’ sensitive eyes. Animals that don’t die during the testing phases are brutally killed after testing—which can last for months—through decapitation or asphyxiation.

These tests—which are not mandated by law or any current FDA regulation—are also typically inaccurate and bodily responses found in animals only rarely translate to human beings. Not to mention, many viable alternatives exist, and there are already thousands of ingredients that have a proven history of being effective for human use.

Several countries have already banned this cruel practice of testing on animals for cosmetic purposes, such as Columbia, the UK, India, Israel, and Norway. Amazon.com is extremely influential and is one of the most widely used forums for purchasing cosmeceuticals. If you were to follow in the direction of these counties, perhaps other companies would soon follow too.

We are asking you, Mr. Bezos, to please stop selling animal tested cosmetic products on your popular website. Animals do not deserve to suffer for our aesthetic preferences.

Sincerely,

{Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Otwarte Klatki