Rabbits are on a roll! Natural-products giant Nature's Gate just became the fourth company to pull out of the Chinese market until the country stops requiring tests on animals for cosmetics. After talks with PETA, Nature's Gate agreed that there is nothing pretty about tormenting animals in laboratories, and the company chose to forgo the large Chinese market, rather than sacrificing its commitment to being cruelty-free.

iStockphoto.com/SQUAMISH 

PETA is proud to give Nature's Gate our Courage in Commerce Award for its dedication to offering a wide array of quality personal-care and beauty products without  harming animals anywhere in the world.

And Nature's Gate is in good company: Paul Mitchell, Dermalogica, and Pangea Organics have all pulled their products out of China in order to save animals' lives, and many more companies, such as Urban Decay and NYX, have refused to sell in China until the animal testing requirements are lifted. As a result, these conscientious companies are being rewarded with even more customer support, and with the help of the scientists PETA is helping to fund, China is prepping to approve its first non-animal testing method. 

Please join us in thanking Nature's Gate, and continue to support companies that don't test on animals by checking PETA's online list of companies that do and that don't test on animals. Order your own free copy of PETA's first-ever global cruelty-free shopping guide and take it with you every time you shop! Naturally.

More good news on the international product testing front: After discussions with PETA, Pangea Organics is ending all sales of its products in China, where animal tests for cosmetics are required. For choosing principles over profits and vowing not to pay for animal tests anywhere in the world, PETA is proud to honor Pangea Organics with our Courage in Commerce Award.

© iStockPhoto.com/zoshyii 

Pangea Organics has been a member of PETA's Beauty Without Bunnies program and will stay on PETA's cruelty-free list along with more than 1,300 cosmetics companies and personal-care and household products companies that are committed to compassion.

Pangea joins a growing list of companies that are choosing to stay true to their cruelty-free roots. Last year, Paul Mitchell Systems became the first company to pull out of China rather than harming animals after learning from PETA that selling in that country would mean painful and deadly tests on animals, and other companies, such as Dermalogica, have followed suit. Urban Decay also reversed its decision to enter the Chinese market after hearing from thousands of PETA supporters. And NYX, Paula's Choice, Yes To Carrots, and Jack Black have all said, "No, thanks!" to the Chinese market until tests on animals are no longer required—and that day is coming closer. PETA is helping to fund the efforts of the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, which is working to help Chinese scientists and government officials accept superior, non-animal methods, and China is poised to approve its first non-animal test. 

Please help us congratulate Pangea Organics, and show your support for cruelty-free living by using PETA's brand-new global Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide every time you shop! Order a free copy or use PETA's Beauty Without Bunnies database to find compassionate companies that refuse to pay for animal tests anywhere in the world.  

UPDATE: Santa Paws brought a gift early this year! We're delighted to share some great news to kick off the holidays—and what could be better than a happy ending for puppies?

Following the dynamic campaigns of PETA and its affiliates worldwide, the 70 4-month-old beagles sent for horrible experiments in an Indian laboratory have just been rescued! A huge "thank-you" to the more than 50,000 compassionate people around the world who e-mailed Indian officials through the websites of PETA and its international affiliates urging them to take action. The dogs have been removed from quarantine and handed over to animal protection groups with the permission of the Ministry of Environment & Forests and through efforts made internally in government by MP Maneka Gandhi. 

During its campaign, PETA India discovered that Beijing Marshall Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (a branch of the notorious animal-breeding facility Marshall BioResources), had sent a letter to the airline used for the animals' transport—which has a longstanding policy against shipping animals to laboratories—giving false assurances that the beagles "won't be hurt or killed as Lab Animal [sic]."

While these 70 lucky dogs have been spared lives of misery and pain in a laboratory, there's still work to be done to keep more animals out of the hands of experimenters in India. Air India recently resumed shipping animals to laboratories; please urge airline officials to stop delivering animals to their torturers and executioners.

 

Originally posted November 13:

Thanks to a whistleblower, PETA India found out that 70 beagles exported from China into India and falsely labeled as "pets" are actually to be used in deadly experiments.  PETA India is calling on the Indian government to conduct an urgent investigation. It has also asked officials to confiscate the dogs and allow the organization to give them a chance at living in peace in adoptive homes instead of facing caging, poisoning, and death in a laboratory.

 As I write, the beagles are being held at Animal Quarantine and Certification Services in Chennai. Their falsified  import paperwork should render the shipment illegal, as PETA India has learned that the animals, sent from commercial breeder Beijing Marshall Biotechnology Co. Ltd., are actually meant for a laboratory at Advinus Therapeutics.

Saving 70 Snoopys

People may generally picture mice, rats, and rabbits when they think about animals used in experiments, but a great many dogs—including puppies and homeless animals from shelters—are tormented and killed in laboratories as well. Dogs are often used in toxicology tests in which they are force-fed massive amounts of a drug, industrial chemical, pesticide, or household product, causing a slow, excruciating death from poisoning.

Oddly, experimenters particularly favor beagles because of their size and their eager-to-please nature—a quality that would normally make a person want to protect and care for them, not torture them.

Making the Connection

Even though I have lived with beagles and beagle mixes since childhood—including my current companions, Beau and Oliver—when it came to understanding the inexcusable cruelty of experimenting on animals, I never quite "got it" until I saw this picture during a PETA conference. That's when I realized that there could be never be sufficient justification for inflicting this kind of suffering on a dog so much like Beau.

Then I realized something else: No animal deserves to be burned, poisoned, mutilated, or killed in a laboratory. They're all living beings with thoughts, feelings, and desires—including the desire to live free from harm—just like my dog. Just like me. Even if animal experimentation produced reliable results (which it doesn't), it's no more ethical to torture a mouse, a rabbit, or a monkey in a laboratory in the name of science than it would be to torture us or our animal companions.

 What You Can Do

PETA and its international affiliates are 100 percent committed to ending the torture of animals in cruel tests and experiments, and they've already won many victories. But there's more to be done—and they need your help. Learn how you can help keep animals out of laboratories.

When news broke that cosmetics giant L'Oréal was acquiring ultra-hip makeup innovator Urban Decay—a PETA (and peta2) fave—some brows were furrowed over what this would mean for Urban Decay's cruelty-free status since L'Oréal is not included on PETA's list of companies that don't test on animals. Well, stop fretting—it'll just cause wrinkles.

© Chris Garcia

Living up to its recent PETA Courage in Commerce Award, Urban Decay has assured PETA in writing that its animal-testing policy will not change, and that the company will remain cruelty-free.

What You Can Do

Please always buy cruelty-free—you'll find Urban Decay and more than 1,000 other companies in PETA's searchable list. 

We're tickled countless shades of pink to report that NYX Cosmetics has affirmed its commitment to producing 100 percent cruelty-free cosmetics by pledging not to sell its products in China until animal tests are no longer required there for makeup and personal-care items. To applaud the company's commendable choice to stay out of this large consumer market so that not even one animal will be harmed for its products, PETA has given NYX Cosmetics our Courage in Commerce Award.

We hope NYX won't have to wait too long before marketing in China. Thanks to training and outreach partially funded by PETA, China is poised to begin accepting its first-ever in-vitro (non-animal) test for cosmetics ingredients soon. In the meantime, though, the only way into the Chinese cosmetics market is over the dead bodies of animals.

Unlike corporations that sell out animals in hopes of a larger market share (or refuse to say whether they pay for animal testing or not), NYX Cosmetics and other principled cosmetics and personal-care companies, including Paul Mitchell and Urban Decay, are making ethical conduct a top priority, and they deserve our support.

What You Can Do

Ready to change your look? Starting your holiday shopping? Before you hit the stores, make sure you're not buying into cruelty by checking PETA's list of companies that don't test on animals—it's the numero uno resource for up-to-date info on cruelty-free businesses.

Thanks to a grant from PETA, scientists in China are learning how to test cosmetics in a test tube instead of on animals. The Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS), a global leader in the advancement of alternatives and known for its brilliant work in helping corporations switch from animal to non-animal testing, just held a seminar at Beijing Technology and Business University (BTBU) to teach Chinese scientists how to test cosmetics ingredients without using animals. The training was made possible by a new grant to IIVS from PETA—the second grant that we've given the group for its international work—to help purchase equipment needed for the course. PETA first became involved following our discovery that Avon, Mary Kay, and Estée Lauder had been secretly paying for tests on animals despite many years on PETA's list of companies that don't test cosmetics on animals.

© IIVS

A Change Coming to China

The Chinese government requires tests on animals before many cosmetics products can be marketed in that country. PETA (along with our friends at PETA Asia) is working to change that, and one key is having scientists who are ready to implement non-animal (in vitro) test methods. BTBU is home to the largest university program in cosmetics science in China, and the school is establishing a new laboratory to teach and conduct in vitro testing. About 30 students and faculty members took part in the training.

With a $33,000 PETA grant—thanks to the McGrath Family Foundation, whose support makes this possible—IIVS was able to train participants on a procedure that can be used in place of the cruel Draize eye irritancy test performed on rabbits. As Dr. Rodger Curren, IIVS' president, explained:

Support from PETA has allowed the university to expedite the incorporation of hands-on training in non-animal (in vitro) methods to undergraduate, graduate and faculty at BTBU. Both faculty and students are enthusiastic about the training and planning for future sessions has already begun.

What You Can Do

Please buy cosmetics and personal-care products only from companies that don't test on animals, and tell Avon, Mary Kay, and Estée Lauder that you won't buy their products as long as they fund animal testing.

PETA is urging the public to beware of PETCO's "Turtle Relinquishment Program"—a deceptively named ploy to essentially solicit free turtles from unsuspecting people in order to funnel them back into the pet trade, through a meat farm!

Most states have laws either banning or restricting the sale of turtles, so it is likely that any you see at a pet store were captured illegally or raised in less-than-humane conditions.

Capitalizing on a recent rash of pet turtle–related cases of salmonella poisoning in humans, the shameless pet store chain—which has a terrible record already when it comes to animal welfare—has announced that anyone can bring a turtle of any size to its stores. PETCO then ships those turtles to its own vendor, Concordia Turtle Farm in Louisiana, which has said that it will "treat" the turtles for salmonella.

Well, this might sound like a noble effort to some, but shipping turtles is extremely stressful on them. And to add insult to injury, there really isn't any way to rid reptiles of salmonella—they naturally carry it in their intestinal tract! What's more, what PETCO doesn't tell consumers, and what PETA has learned, is that Concordia Turtle Farm exports 80 percent of its turtles overseas—mostly to China, where they grow larger and are then slaughtered for meat. Although it's unclear whether the relinquished turtles will end up on Chinese plates, this business deal brings up several important questions. Why would PETCO ally itself with a meat-trade supplier? And if it's "concerned" about human health, why is the company selling turtles in the first place?

Living conditions during the trip from the breeder or dealer are typically cramped and unsanitary, and many reptiles do not survive the ordeal.

What You Can Do

Please help keep turtles safe by urging the CEO of PETCO to end this ghastly program and stop selling turtles altogether.

For more than two decades, Revlon was a member of PETA's Caring Consumer program and refused to allow animals to be poisoned, burned, and blinded in tests of its products. But the company is now on the "Do Test" list after Revlon started selling products in China where animal tests are required for most cosmetics. Although PETA has asked Revlon numerous times to come clean about whether it is paying for animal tests overseas, the company won't say—which, to us, says it all. We are now stepping up our involvement with Revlon in a very different way—we're headed to the company's boardroom.

We bought stock in the company because as shareholders, we can demand transparency about animal testing activity and also work in yet another way to get the tests stopped.

We've also set up an action alert that our supporters can use to e-mail Revlon and tell the company that consumers have a right to know whether its makeup is being tested on animals. Supporters can then tell everyone they know not to buy Revlon products until the company cleans up its act.

Many compassionate companies, including Paul Mitchell and Urban Decay, have held true to their cruelty-free principles and will not sell their products in China because they do not believe in funding animal tests. PETA is helping to fund scientists working with China to help the country institute non-animal tests, and until those tests are available, Revlon should pull its cosmetics off Chinese shelves, too. In the meantime, conscientious consumers can shop from a long list of companies on PETA's cruelty-free list that don't harm animals at home or abroad.

Although animal rights is still a fairly new concept in China and in much of Asia as a whole, there is no other country in which the movement is growing faster, and PETA Asia is at the forefront.

Notorious Fur Trade Exposed

PETA Asia has conducted groundbreaking undercover investigations of the fur trade in China—now the world's largest exporter of fur—and found that raccoon dogs are beaten with steel pipes and left to die slowly as they writhe in agony in full view of other animals and that rabbits' necks are broken while the animals are still conscious and able to feel pain. Millions of dogs and cats are also killed for their fur in China. This fur is often deliberately mislabeled as fur from other animals before it is exported to the West.

Battling the World's Largest Foie Gras Farm

While California is poised to outlaw foie gras less than a month from now, PETA Asia recently learned that there are plans to build the world's largest foie gras farm at Poyang Lake in China's Jiangxi province.

Birds raised for foie gras are force-fed up to 4 pounds of grain and fat every day via a pneumatic tube that is rammed down their throats. The birds often suffer from internal hemorrhaging, and they can become so debilitated that they can move only by pushing themselves along the ground with their wings. There are no penalties for abusing birds in China.

After PETA Asia and other groups protested, the British-owned company that is funding the foie gras farm's construction suspended its funding of the project pending further review. 

Harnessing Star Power

PETA Asia works closely with local activists and groups throughout China as well as with Chinese celebrities to help raise awareness of animal issues. For example, PETA Asia recently unveiled its first-ever Chinese "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ad, which starred actor, singer, and writer Annie Yi. An exclusive video interview with Annie has been watched by more than a quarter-million people in China.

Photo: Chen Man|Makeup: Hang Yue

Chinese actor Li Xiaoran and Hong Kong model Cara G also spoke out against fur, and Cara starred in an Earth Day ad urging people to go vegetarian to help save the planet. Taiwanese pop star Show Luo teamed up with PETA Asia for an ad promoting animal adoption.

PETA Asia is also having a phenomenal impact online—from its Chinese website and blog to social media sites. A PETA Asia tweet about the Canadian seal slaughter got more than 15,000 retweets.

Want to Help?

Thinking about a career—and continent—change? PETA Asia is looking for smart, compassionate, hardworking people to join its team. If you speak Mandarin and are passionate about ending animal abuse—or if you know someone who meets those criteria—please check out PETA Asia's current job openings and send in your résumé.

For those of you want to remain stateside, you can help by checking out the action alerts page on PETA Asia's website.

With our new campaign on Facebook's "Causes" platform, we're aiming to raise $15,000 in January to fund anti-fur protests, distribute literature, buy ad space, and erect billboards to send the message that fur looks best on its original owners.

Despite the decreasing popularity of fur and the plethora of faux looks in stores this year, some backward designers are still trying to stage a resurgence of real fur. But as designers try to push the cruelest of fashions, we're pushing back.

PETA/Manfred Karreman

The Facts on Fur

It's baffling how any clothier with a conscience could ignore the fact that this year alone, more than 2 million animals—including cats and dogs exactly like those we share our homes with—will be shoved into wire cages so tightly that they can't move and be trucked across China to be slaughtered. Some of them will be dead by the time they arrive. They are the lucky ones.

Those who survive will feel their bones break when workers throw the crates around like rag dolls. They may be beaten and stomped on. Or they may have the skin ripped off their bodies while they scream and thrash in pain.

Help End the Fur Trade Now!

You can help stop this cruelty by joining our "Causes" campaign and sharing it on your social-networking sites. And please consider making a lifesaving donation today to help end the fur trade.