Chris's Sharebook 

PETITION: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/237/391/433/dont-test-legal-recreational-drugs-on-animals/

In a new bill, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne outlined procedures for testing "legal highs" on animals so that the products can be sold in New Zealand stores again. Legal highs, also called party pills, are psychoactive drugs intended for recreation, not for curing or preventing illness.

The bill recommends performing toxicity tests on dogs and rats over a six to 12-month period. Toxicity testing generally involves administering drugs or chemicals to animals by force feeding, inhalation, injection, or on the skin to determine immediate reactions and lethal doses. This causes great pain to the test animals, who are usually killed at the end of the testing period. New Zealand currently tests 300,000 animals per year, and the legal drug tests would add to this number for a completely unnecessary cause.

There is no reason for legal highs to be sold on the New Zealand market, as their use is purely for cheap recreation. Administering painful tests and killing animals to sell party pills is unjustifiably cruel. Please sign the petition to put an end to these unnecessary tests.

Major cosmetics brands Mary Kay, Avon, and Urban Decay have long been known for their cruelty-free product testing policies. Recently, these companies and similar brands have begun to sell their products in China, where animal testing is required by law. While U.S. customers may switch to brands that remain 100% cruelty free, Chinese customers don't have alternatives. Additionally, U.S. brands that stand by a strict no animal testing policy will miss out on selling to the large Chinese market.

Cosmetics are luxury beauty aids not required for health or hygiene. There is no justification for performing painful experiments on animals to test these unnecessary products. The decades-long existence of cruelty-free beauty companies in the U.S. should prove the success and safety of non-animal testing. 

China has recently been working to approve the first non-animal cosmetics tests in their country. Please sign the petition to encourage China to keep working toward cruelty-free tests and to end mandatory animal cosmetics testing.