Taiwan has joined the growing global momentum to end cosmetics cruelty today with passage of legislation to end cosmetics animal testing. The bill, proposed by Legislators Wang YuMin and Zhuang Rui Xiong, amends Taiwan’s Control for Cosmetic Hygiene Act and bans cosmetic animal testing for both finished products and cosmetic ingredients. The legislation will go into effect in 2019.

The #BeCrueltyFree Taiwan campaign, led by the Taiwan SPCA and Humane Society International, has been instrumental in achieving this animal welfare milestone. During the two year campaign, #BeCrueltyFree worked closely with Legislator Wang YuMin and gathered support from well-known Taiwanese celebrities and animal lovers Aya, Junior and Lisa Wang. Recent opinion polling commissioned by the Taiwan SPCA shows that 69.2 percent of Taiwanese consumers back the ban with 76.5 percent believing animals shouldn’t suffer in name of beauty.

Claire Mansfield, HSI’s global #BeCrueltyFree campaigns director, said: “This is a moment to celebrate as Taiwan joins the growing international movement away from animal testing of cosmetics and takes the lead on ending cosmetics cruelty in Southeast Asia, becoming the first in the region to ban animal testing for cosmetics. It’s truly a victory for both animal welfare and compassionate consumers; and yet another achievement for the #BeCrueltyFree campaign. Unfortunately, Taiwanese consumers can still buy cosmetics cruelly tested on animals if the product is imported, so our sights are now set on campaigning for an end to the import and sale of newly animal tested cosmetics.”

Taiwan SPCA and #BeCrueltyFree Taiwan campaign coordinator Joy Liou said: “We are thrilled that Taiwan has taken this positive step and voted to end cosmetics animal testing. Testing cosmetics on animals causes them pain and suffering for test results that have never been proven reliable to assure human safety and don’t represent modern science. Today we celebrate this important victory, and tomorrow we look ahead to campaigning for a sales ban for products newly tested on animals outside of Taiwan, so that cosmetics cruelty can fully be eliminated from the Taiwanese market.”

Passage of the legislation brings Taiwan in line with more than 30 countries—home to more than 1.7 billion consumers—that have already joined the #BeCrueltyFree movement. The world’s largest cosmetics market, the European Union, together with Norway, Israel, India, New Zealand, South Korea, Turkey and several states in Brazil, have enacted full or partial bans on animal testing for cosmetic products and ingredients. Similar legislation is currently pending in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Argentina and elsewhere under the leadership of #BeCrueltyFree campaign teams in these countries

Consumers can continue to show their support for further legislation to end the import and sale of newly animal tested cosmetics and bring a complete end to cosmetics cruelty in Taiwan by signing the petition at: http://goo.gl/ftNM7N

Note: Nation-wide poll conducted by Trend Survey and Research Co. in April 2015, with 1073 samples and a confidence level of 95 percent (margin of error + – 3 percent).

Media contacts:

HSI: Raul Arce-Contreras, rcontreras@humanesociety.org, 240-620-3263
Taiwan SPCA: joy.liou@spca.org.tw,  +886 2 2738-2130