Leona Lewis sends personal plea to Brazil

Leona Lewis has written a personal plea to the Brazilian Senate in a bid to ban all cruel animal testing of cosmetics in Brazil.

A delegation of leading animal protection groups in Brazil, led by Humane Society International's #BeCrueltyFree Brazil campaign, hand delivered Leona's heartfelt plea to Senator Cristovam Buarque in Brasilia. The presentation by Humane Society International, took place following a Public Hearing in which scientists and #BeCrueltyFree representatives made the case for a robust cosmetics animal testing ban.

In June last year, legislators introduced a bill now going through the Brazilian Senate promising to ban animal testing for cosmetics such as new lipstick and shampoo. However, severe loopholes in the bill language mean that while the relatively rare practice of animal testing for finished products would be banned, the far more routine animal testing for cosmetic ingredients can continue. Unless amended, countless rabbits, guinea pigs and other animals will continue to suffer and die for Brazil's beauty industry. That's not good enough, says Leona Lewis and Brazil's leading animal groups.

Leona Lewis wrote to the senator: "Subjecting animals to having cosmetic chemicals dripped in their eyes or force fed to them in massive, lethal doses is a completely unjustifiable cruelty. No-one needs a lipstick more than a rabbit needs her life…The loopholes in Bill PLC 70/2014 would allow companies to continue cruel animal testing for virtually any ingredient, meaning Brazil would have a false test ban that in reality saves no animals at all.

My friends at HSI from the #BeCrueltyFree Brazil campaign can advise you of precisely what changes need to be made to ensure that Brazil introduce a strong, meaningful and full ban on cosmetics cruelty. Please show the rest of world that when Brazil says no to cosmetics cruelty, it does so sincerely, no half-measures."