Mexico just became the 41st country in the world, and the first in North America, to ban the testing of cosmetics on animals, following a unanimous vote in the country’s Senate.  Not only are they banning any testing within Mexico, but also preventing the manufacture, import and marketing of products that have been tested on animals in any other country.  This comes as a result of a multi-year campaign by Humane Society International, and was embraced by many of the industry’s largest companies, including Proctor & Gamble, Avon, L’Oreal, and Unilever among others, who are all working to replace animal testing with more viable human-relevant testing methods.

Antón Aguilar, executive director of Humane Society International (HSI) in Mexico, said. “This is a monumental step forward for animals, consumers and science in Mexico, and this ground-breaking legislation leads the way for the Americas to become the next cruelty-free beauty market, and brings us one bunny-leap closer to a global ban.”

Mexico joins 40 other countries worldwide that have already banned animal testing.  Here in the US, California was the first state to pass a ban on cosmetic animal testing in 2018 and six additional states (Nevada, Illinois, Virginia, Maryland, Hawaii, and Maine) followed. Three additional states, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New York, are expected to follow. At the federal level,  the Humane Cosmetics Act was introduced in 2019 by bipartisan politicians, including vegan Senator Cory Booker to ban cosmetic animal testing nationwide, as well as prohibit the import of cosmetics tested on animals from countries worldwide. Currently, more than 900 companies officially endorse the Humane Cosmetics Act.