Editorial: Cosmetic test ban a great moral win

Cosmetics can no longer be tested on rabbits. Photo / Getty Images

It didn't quite make front page news, but last week the Government agreed to alter the Animal Welfare Act to ban the testing of cosmetics on animals.

There is no evidence that any such testing - which results in distress, pain and sometimes death, all in the name of lipstick and mascara profits - had taken place in New Zealand for some years, so this was a victory for principle. We will outlaw something that doesn't happen, but is still wrong.

The Government has resisted previous attempts to introduce a ban on the basis that a non-mandatory system still makes it highly unlikely to occur. But - rather like the "anti-smacking" legislation - this was about the message our laws send out and an unprecedented campaign this week ended in victory.

Animal welfare groups in New Zealand joined together, with SAFE taking the lead, and they were supported by 90,000 signatures and a number of international bodies, including Britain's RSPCA.

Credit, too, to Green MP Mojo Mathers, whose amendment led the parliamentary assault. And let's not forget the celebrity factor in netball ace Irene van Dyk, Queen guitarist Brian May, assorted Shortland Street actors - plus Miss Universe NZ.

The pressure was great; the Government did the right thing.

We now join the European Union, Norway, Israel and India, and give a nod to Australia where such legislation is under consideration.

This move follows last year's success for animal groups in stopping the testing of "legal high" party pills on animals (they had, of course, previously been tested on our youth), and shows that concerted grass-roots campaigns can make a difference.

The next target will be imported make-up that has been subject to animal testing and, having flexed their muscles, lobby groups will no doubt re-focus their efforts on our farming industry which has some good, and some shockingly bad, animal practices.

Over in Oz, the frontline may return to West Australia's shark cull, which is a PR exercise on behalf of the tourist industry and flies in the face of scientific and conservationist evidence, preferring to play on the fears of a threat from these creatures - a threat that is largely the creation of popular mythology.