Animals need protection from cosmetic industry testing

As a society, we have become more conscious of animal welfare, whether it’s cracking down on dog fighting and puppy mills or improving conditions for creatures in circuses and zoos.

New York has a chance to lead in this drive — with state legislation prohibiting the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals.

It’s a grim reality. For too long, companies focused on beauty have subjected rabbits, mice, and more to painful tests for products. Often, those animals’ lives quickly become disposable when the testing is done.

And the cruelty can be gruesome, including decades-old tests that drip substances into animals’ eyes, down their throats, and onto their exposed skin, all of which can have awful effects as the companies’ experimentation continues. The motive seems even more suspect given that the tests are for our nice-smelling shampoos or deodorants, which are not exactly lifesaving treatments.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The federal government and researchers alike have for years supported development of alternative testing methodologies that don’t use animals and — crucially — those technologies and strategies have improved. They include computer modeling and the usage of tissues or cells that can provide the information needed to check product safety.

Advocates say these tests can even be more useful for the actual matter at hand: Is a product fit for a human, not an animal? Yet thousands of animals around the world continue to be subjected to outdated, ugly techniques — sometimes hundreds of animals for a single product ingredient.

The legislation currently pending in Albany, long advocated for by State Sen. Phil Boyle of Bay Shore, smartly focuses on cosmetics alone — not, for example, on medical testing. The bill includes reasonable exceptions, such as not preventing manufacturers from reviewing data resulting from animal testing.

Much of the personal care industry, once an obstacle on this issue, has been getting on the right side of history with animal testing, and some of the major beauty companies such as CoverGirl and Hourglass have already committed to be “cruelty-free” and not submit animals to these tortures. Dozens of countries already fully or partially ban this testing, including the European Union, India, and Mexico. New York can join just a few other U.S. states that have taken this step and throw the weight of its big market behind the effort.

Science has moved far beyond the ungainly, often bloody experiments and procedures of the 20th century. We are now far more conscious of the ecological and moral dimensions of animal mistreatment, from factory farming to cat declawing. There’s no excuse to delay on what has become a bipartisan, consensus issue. Take another leap for animal welfare now.