California Senator Cathleen Galgiani has been recognized as our Legislator of the Month for November 2018. Each month, we nominate a legislator as Legislator of the Month to celebrate the work these individuals do for animals. This month, Democrat Senator Galgiani receives her award for her work in putting an end to cruel and unnecessary cosmetics testing on animals, which has successfully led to the Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act in California.

The Act, which was passed by the Legislature and signed into law this past September, will ban the sale in California of any cosmetic product that has been tested on animals after January 2020. This new law means that California will become the first U.S. state to end the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.

Senator Galgiani has a long history of voting in support of a number of laws which improve animal welfare, and she introduced Senate Bill 1249 – which became the Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act – in part in response to perceived Federal inaction on the issue.

In learning that she had received the award, Galgiani stated that, “I am pleased to receive Cruelty Free International’s Legislator of the Month award and will continue to work for the welfare of animals. This step forward in California must be replicated around the world. There is no need for animals to continue to suffer and die in cruel and unnecessary experiments for cosmetic products. Animals shouldn’t have to be tortured in order for you to look your best.”

The Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act brings California in line with over 30 countries including Norway, Israel, and India, as well as the European Union, which has banned the sale of new animal-tested cosmetics since 2013.

However, despite the availability of approved non-animal testing methods and existing ingredients safe for human use, there are still no laws banning animal tests for cosmetics products and ingredients in 80% of the world. We estimate that over half a million animals – from rabbits to mice, rats, guinea pigs, and hamsters – are still used annually in cosmetics testing worldwide.

Please continue to support our work, and contact our North American Campaign Manager at usa@crueltyfreeinternational.org if you want to end the sale of animal-tested cosmetics in your state.