We can all agree that animal testing is a horrendous practice that must be stopped, no? But for most of us, its a stance of conscience, not of experience. We’ve never been in the laboratories, watching animals being shaven, prodded, smeared and otherwise tortured. And we certainly have not had the misfortune of being experimented on; well, most of us.
24 year old London-based performance artist, Jacqueline Traides, agreed to undergo animal testing for 10 continuous hours as part of a campaign to end animal testing in the cosmetics industry. Joined by fellow performance artist, Oliver Cronk, Traides spent the day in the window of Lush Cosmetics‘ Regent Street store in Central London, where she was restrained, force-fed, given numerous injections and chemical eye irritants, chemically burned, and eventually bagged and left on a pile of trash in the street to be tossed out with other rubbish, as would a non-human lab subject, killed by aggressive testing. The surprising thing– the tests Traides underwent voluntarily are commonplace in cosmetics testing on aminals.
Thousands of people witnessed the exhibition, done in support of an anti-cruelty campaign launched by LUSH Cosmetics and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and signed a petition to end animal testing. The campaign and petitions are rolling out simultaneously in 48 countries and in more than 700 LUSH stores in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Russia. Fortunately, there aren’t 48 performance artists reenacting the horrors of animal testing, but Traides’ and Cronk’s performance were powerful, and disturbing, enough to draw the attention of national and global media.
“Animals should not have to rely on voluntary codes of conduct but should be protected by robust laws that force all companies to adopt humane methods to bring their products to market,” said Brandi Halls, North American campaign manager for LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics.
“Cosmetics don’t need to be tested on animals. LUSH has never done it, and there’s no damn reason for anyone else to do it, and we’re really angry” exclaimed Hillary Jones, LUSH Ethics Director.
Watch the video below to see what animal testing looks like when done on a human being. Then, visit www.fightinganimaltesting.com to sign the petition to end animal testing.
WARNING: Video is graphic
Photo via www.fightinganimaltesting.com; video via www.huffingtonpost.com
