Canada banning cosmetic testing on animals

The federal government is banning the testing of cosmetic products on animals, joining more than 40 other countries that have taken the same step.

Changes to the Food and Drugs Act were included in the government's omnibus budget bill, which received royal assent last week but won't come into force until December.

The new regulations will ban the sale and import of cosmetic products that rely on animal testing and also make it an offence for a company to falsely claim their products don't use animal testing.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos pointed to the broad support the regulations have received from both animal welfare advocates and Canada's cosmetic industry.

"Rarely do we see policy changes where everyone is on board," Duclos told a press conference Tuesday. "Today is one of those rare days and it is worth celebrating."

Darren Praznik, president of Cosmetics Alliance Canada, praised the changes but said they are mostly symbolic because Canadian companies already have largely moved away from animal testing.

"We haven't been doing animal testing for years," Praznik said. "I think it's really symbolic, though, that we recognize it in law."

Duclos said the changes will assure Canadians that their cosmetic products don't rely on animal testing.

"It's good for the industry. It's also good for Canadians to know that no further animal testing will be conducted in Canada," he said.

The EU introduced its own ban in 2004 and invested millions of euros in research to develop alternatives to animal testing.

But Praznik said there were hurdles in the way of getting Canada's legislation passed. A private member's bill introduced in 2015 also aimed at a ban on animal testing for cosmetics, but the cosmetics industry opposed it because of what it called overly broad language.

But once the industry group began collaborating with animal rights' groups, he said, they were able to come up with a list of principles that worked for them both, allowing Health Canada to draft the bill.

"The lesson is that if you can get stakeholders from different sides of an issue together and you have some goodwill, you can usually work out a way to move it forward," Praznik said.

Rebecca Aldworth, the Canadian director for Humane Society International, echoed Praznik.

"It's a watershed moment," she said. "It's also proof of just what can be achieved when the non-profit sector, industry, scientists, government and the public all come together to realize a vision of a better future."

Aldworth said her organization will now turn its attention to pushing the Canadian government to invest in better testing methods, as the EU did.

Ban is not retroactive

The ban will not be applied retroactively to products previously tested on animals — meaning those products can still be sold.

Hilary Jones, ethical director at Lush Cosmetics, said the company would rather see regulators throw out old animal testing data while companies re-test existing products using cruelty-free methods. The company has been a vocal opponent of animal testing since its founding.

"We believe it's unscientific to test on animals. It's a very blunt, old-fashioned tool. So we'd like to see all cosmetics pass through new methods." she said. "But are we happy with this legislation? Absolutely."

Praznik said most cosmetics companies no longer rely on animal testing data because they've been approved for human consumption for years.

"You've got 10, 20 years of human use safety data," he said.