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| Students look at a blackboard bearing comments at an anti-animal cruelty campaign held in front of LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics in Garosu-gil, southern Seoul, March 2 / Courtesy of Humane Society International Korea |
Humane Society International takes its campaign 'Be Cruelty Free' to Seoul
By Lee Ji-hye
As Korea is the leading cosmetics manufacturer based in Asia, Humane Society International is seeking to encourage key figures in industry and government here to confront and end cruelty to all animals, specifically those used in laboratory tests.
HSI's "Be Cruelty-Free Campaign" is focused on preventing animal testing around the world by motivating legislative change.
Claire Mansfield, the campaign director of the organization, travelled to Korea from HIS's London offices on a 10-day visit to visit scientists, campaign organizations and members of the National Assembly.
"My goal is to incorporate banning animal testing into the Korean legislation, and hopefully if we have an impact here in Korea, it'll ripple throughout the Asian region and ultimately the world," Mansfield said.
HSI's Korean branch led a street campaign with UK brand, LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, which invites consumers to sign petitions at all LUSH branches nationwide.
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| Claire Mansfield, the campaign director of the campaign, "Be Cruelty Free," speaks to the press |
"The partnership with Lush came about even before I came on board," explained Mansfield, who joined the campaign in London two years ago.
"The campaign began back in April 2012, and Lush has been our corporate partner from the very beginning," Mansfield said, adding that there is also support from other companies.
"We have a lot of other corporate partners as well, more regional to the country which it's in ㅡ we always try to reach out to local companies in each of the countries by conducting collaborative campaigns with our partners," she said.
"Even if the companies do not have the resources to carry out a full campaign, they'll still Tweet and talk to us, and that'll help spread the word and awareness. So that's our main goal."
The campaign director was joined at the street campaign by New Zealand born TV celebrity Sam Hammington in front of a cosmetics store in Garosu-gil, southern Seoul last Monday.
"I'm a real animal lover, and for a while now I've wanted to do something to speak up for animals," said Hammington.
"Animals can't speak up for themselves, but if they could I reckon they'd ask us to be kinder, more compassionate, and not subject them to completely unnecessary cruelty, like testing cosmetics on them," he said, adding that he was shocked to learn the fact that the testing still continues in Korea as well as other nations worldwide.
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| Mansfield and TV personality Sam Hammington hold up their campaign pleges demanding a ban on cosmetic testing |
"It's so unnecessary, and I've realized there are plenty of cruelty-free brands available which we should all make an effort to look out for. I'd love Korea to be the next country to end cosmetics cruelty," he said.
Also taking part in the street campaign was LUSH Korea's CEO Christina Woo.
She said, "Ending animal testing is very important to LUSH, and that's why we launched the Lush Prize to help fund development of alternatives including tests that can replace animals in cosmetics testing."
"By refraining from using cosmetics that have been tested on animals and by promoting ethical consumerism through the purchase of cruelty-free products, LUSH seeks to bring an end to animal testing," Woo said. "We strongly believe that small actions can bring change to the world, so please join in our action."
Campaign director Mansfield also took a visit to the National Assembly to meet a lawmaker to propose a bill to establish a full ban on animal testing in Korea.
Rep. Moon Jeong-Lim of the ruling Saenuri Party met with Mansfield last Wednesday.
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| Sam Hammington signs a "Be Cruelty Free" petition |
The bill proposed by Moon will be the first step towards ending animal testing of cosmetics, according to HSI Korea. The organization has been working with the lawmaker for the past two years and intensive discussions were held last week regarding the language of the bill.
"We are hoping to see an effective ban on cosmetics cruelty," Mansfield said.
"Humane Society International has been calling for legislation for several years, so we're pleased that a test ban is being considered, but we need to turn that into real action for animals," Mansfield was quoted as saying at the meeting with Moon.
"I'm looking forward to meeting with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and other policy makers here in Seoul to ensure that the proposed ban is formally agreed, will ban all animal testing for cosmetics, and be introduced as quickly as possible," she said.
The bill will be launched on March 11, the second anniversary of the European Union's ban on the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.
The campaign director was quoted as saying that Moon expressed appreciation and commented that she would take the proposed specifics into consideration.
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| Manfield poses next to a campaign mascot with a Cruelty Free t-shirt |
"Korea is a strong country ㅡ it's got a strong cosmetics market, a lot of good cosmetic products are made, so it's key in that regard," Mansfield said.
"It's a key player in many ways ㅡ particularly in the Asia cosmetics market," she said, adding that the ultimate goal is to reach an environment where such campaigns are not even needed.
"There are so many alternatives out there, and we don't need to conduct brutality like this," she said, mentioning that the organization has already played an influential role in some policy decisions for the domestic cosmetic market.
The organization stated that the main points discussed at the assembly were the European Union's complete ban on cosmetics animal testing and pursuing alternatives available such as in-vitro testing, when tests are conducted on human cells in test tubes instead of subjecting live animals to experiments.
"By implementing a complete ban on animal testing for cosmetic products, we can see more effort in working toward alternatives by the government, which is what is happening in EU," said Seo Borami, the Be Cruelty Free campaign manager in Korea.
According to a study conducted by Markets and Markets titled, "In-Vitro Toxicology/Toxicity Testing Market by Industry, Technology, Applications, Method – Global Forecast to 2018," the EU commanded the largest share of the global in-vitro testing market in 2013, which was attributed to support provided by the European government for anti-animal testing laws such as a ban on testing cosmetics.
The organization cited a Korean cosmetics firm seeking to sell products overseas to prove that informing a company about animal testing in markets around the world can change commercial decisions.
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| Passersby sign a petition for the National Assembly to ban all animal testing for cosmetic products |
"Back in 2013, we had a conversation with Aromatica (a Korean producer of organic skincare products) — we told them the policy that they have in China, where the government there has made it mandatory to conduct animal testing," Seo said.
"We explained what the situation was like in China when Aromatica was about to export their products there," she explained. "But after our discussion, they decided not to send their products to China."
"That was the first Korean company to step back from exporting ㅡ which is why we see it possible to have animal testing banning mandated in Korean legislation."
The organization also met with Professor Chun Young-jin, the director of the Center of Alternative Methods for Safety Evaluation of Cosmetics (CAMSEC) as well as Dr. Son Soo-jung, the director of the Korean Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods.
"We not only discussed possible alternative methods for animal testing, but how as an international organization, HSI could do something to contribute to promote such possible alternatives in Korea as well."
