Every year thousands of animals undergo painful tests in European labs for the development of … cleaning products. GAIA wants this to be prohibited, and that is why between 28 July and 15 August it is going on tour in 11 Belgian cities to seek support from the general public. GAIA Director Ann De Greef: “We are inviting everybody to sign our petition. We also want to persuade as many people as possible to use cleaning products that haven't been tested on animals.”
This campaign fits in with GAIA’s traditional summer tour, which is this year focusing on animal testing. There is already a ban on animal testing for cosmetic products in the European Union. GAIA is calling on Belgian and European politicians to extend that ban to cleaning products and their ingredients. According to Ann De Greef, “It’s perfectly possible to develop cleaning products which haven’t been tested on animals … What’s more, such products already exist. Just look at Ecover, for example.”
Collecting signatures
Yet in Europe thousands of mice, rats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs and fish still have to suffer – and even die – as a result of experiments for cleaning products. These include toxicity tests, in which animals are exposed to chemical products. These damage their organs, make the animals vomit, or cause cramps and internal bleeding. The test animals are usually killed, even if the tests aren’t fatal.
In order to bring an end to all that, over the coming weeks GAIA is collecting signatures in collaboration with its colleagues from the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE). At the end of the process this petition will be presented to the European Parliament. In anticipation of an EU ban on animal testing for cleaning products the consumer can already switch to cleaning products which haven't been tested on animals. A list of which can be found here.
