This year, we have something to celebrate as we commemorate World Week for Animals in Laboratories. After 30 years of pressure from PETA and other organizations, Harvard Medical School's New England Primate Research Center is shutting its doors. This milestone victory proves that even the mightiest can fall—or do better, move on, or modernize. And it illustrates why it is crucial that animal advocates keep working to end the suffering of animals in laboratories. 

One group of animal rights advocates in Italy made headlines this week when they occupied a laboratory at the University of Milan and removed many of the mice and rabbits who were caged there. Closer to home, there are numerous easy actions that any of us can take to help animals in laboratories:

1. Update your Facebook cover photo to a photo of an animal in a laboratory (try one of these), and ask your Facebook friends to purchase only cruelty-free cosmetics.
2. Make it harder for experimenters to get their hands on animals by asking Air France, one of the few airlines that will still transport primates to be used in experiments, to stop profiting from cruelty.
3. Be sure to purchase only cosmetics, personal-care products, and household cleaners from companies that don't test on animals. PETA's cruelty-free shopping guide makes it easy. And send companies that do test on animals a quick e-mail to let them know why you won't be purchasing from them.
4. Check this map to see if your state, city, school district, or college has a policy allowing students to opt out of cruel animal dissection. If so, be sure to request a humane teaching method when the time comes. If there isn't a policy yet, get one created to save the lives of some of the millions of animals killed for dissection every year.
5. Join PETA's e-mail drive to get the deadly cat laboratories at the University of Wisconsin–Madison shut down.

Please tweet this post to encourage your Twitter followers to get active for animals in laboratories, too. We can win the campaign to end the use of animals in laboratories, and we must. Millions of animals need us to.

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.

Companies that test their products on animals needn't bother trying to ship them to Israel, because, starting New Year's Day, the country banned the import, sale, and marketing of animal-tested cosmetics, toiletries, and household cleaners. Previously, in 2007, the Israeli government had banned using animals to test personal-care and household products within the country. But with the new law, which was passed in 2010 and came into effect January 1, 2013, lawmakers have one-upped themselves, blocking products that have been tested on animals in other countries from even crossing Israel's border.

PETA and our affiliates are working to end the testing of cosmetics and household products on animals in countries around the world, and Israel has proved that a full ban on such vile products is not only possible but also ethically responsible. The EU had passed a similar ban, which was also scheduled to take effect in 2013, but lawmakers are now considering extending that deadline. PETA and PETA U.K. have been pushing hard to get the EU to uphold the original end date. In addition, PETA India is trying to get a similar ban implemented in that country, and the effort has a lot of momentum. PETA and PETA Asia have been helping Chinese scientists switch to in vitro cosmetics testing methods and are encouraging the Chinese government to accept the results in place of the animal tests that it currently requires. And in the U.S., PETA has been purchasing stock in companies that conduct animal tests so that we can propose shareholder resolutions to switch to humane testing methods.

But despite all the legal hullabaloo, we can at least designate our homes cruelty-free areas. It's easy to select personal-care and household products that weren't tested on animals by glancing at PETA's new global Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide, the latest complete list of companies that refuse to conduct or pay for any animal tests anywhere in the world. 

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.

It's October, which means that every shopping mall looks like the aftermath of a Pepto-Bismol hurricane. Now, don't get me wrong. I care about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I lost my dear grandmother to the disease, and it runs in my family. So finding a cure for breast cancer is a cause close to my heart—which is exactly why you'll never see me in a pink T-shirt, pink sun visor, or socks replete with pink fuzzy balls.

That's because I'm wary of "pinkwashing"—that's when companies toss a pittance at a breast cancer charity so that they can slap a pink ribbon on their product and rake in more money for themselves. The actual donation that the company makes is often either a low preset amount or a small percentage of the purchase price. Pinkwashing watchdog group Think Before You Pink maintains, "If shopping could cure breast cancer, it would be cured by now."

But my big beef is this: Much of the money goes to fund archaic, cruel animal experiments that still haven't produced a cure, even while cutting-edge non-animal testing methods are readily available. So for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, here are four ways that you can help women more than if you had bought another pink doohickey:

Instead of buying a $40 May28th.me watch with a pink strap, donate $40 to the American Breast Cancer Foundation.

Only 10 percent of the proceeds from May28th.me's pink watch go to charity, and that money is donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which wastes money on animal experiments. By donating to the American Breast Cancer Foundation, you can help underprivileged breast cancer patients get the care and treatment that they need.

Instead of buying Progresso Soup, donate vegan food to the Breast Cancer Society.

It's not clear whose lives Progresso's "Save Lids to Save Lives" campaign is supposed to save. It's certainly not the women who are eating soup stored in cans that are made with cancer-causing BPA or the animals who are suffering in the experiments that every purchase helps fund via Susan G. Komen for the Cure. You'll do a lot more good by donating healthy vegan food to the Breast Cancer Society to help impoverished patients eat right.

Instead of buying a $35 pink leather Nook cover, donate $35 to the Breast Cancer Fund.

Only $5 from the sale of each of Barnes & Noble's pink leather Nook covers is donated to charity, and that money goes to—you guessed it—a charity that funds animal experiments. By giving the same $35 to the Breast Cancer Fund, you could help do away with the environmental causes of breast cancer, such as the cancer-causing chemicals used by leather tanneries. 

Instead of buying a $150 pink-and-blue Lacoste tote bag, donate $150 to the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. 

When you spend $150, Lacoste will give $15 (are we sensing a pattern here?) to a charity that funds animal experiments. But by giving $150 to the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, you could fund sophisticated, modern non-animal tests and get us that much closer to a cure.

Find out which charities do test on animals and which don't.

John Paul Mitchell Systems is showing consumers once again why it's a leader in cruelty-free compassion. The hair-care and salon giant has decided to pull entirely out of the Chinese market rather than having its products tested on animals. Paul Mitchell, whose products have never been tested on animals anywhere in the world and who had not yet been required to do so in China, is the first cruelty-free company to stop selling in that country in order to prevent cruel animal tests.  For this bold move, PETA, which has been in communication with the company for months, is presenting Paul Mitchell with its Courage in Commerce Award.

© Chris Garcia

Mary Kay, Avon, and Estée Lauder recently sold out animals when they began paying for animal testing in order to market their products in China and were thus promptly removed from PETA's cruelty-free list. But compassionate companies such as Paul Mitchell and Urban Decay are proving that they'd rather have clear consciences than a few extra yuan in their wallets.

After PETA funded a group of scientists to travel to China and offer their advice on replacing animal experiments with superior non-animal methods, the country is poised to approve its first non-animal cosmetics test. 

In the meantime, please use PETA's Caring Consumer database and support only companies that refuse to pay for any animal tests—no matter where in the world they are conducted.

Hip cosmetics company Urban Decay has earned PETA's Courage in Commerce Award for putting animals ahead of market share and reversing its decision to sell in China, where animals are harmed and killed in product tests. The company's decision followed talks with PETA and thousands of e-mails from disappointed consumers. While many companies have shed their cruelty-free policies as easily as last year's fashion for a share of the profits from China, Urban Decay officials have decided that the cost was too high. They're corporate champs in our book, and the company is going back on PETA's cruelty-free list. 

picto:graphic|cc by 2.0

Change is afoot in China, too. PETA is financially supporting scientists from the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, who are working with the Chinese government to replace cruel and archaic animal tests with superior non-animal methods, and already, we are seeing huge progress. Until the day when product tests on animals are a thing of the past, we hope other companies eyeing the Chinese and other markets where cruel tests are required will follow Urban Decay's example and put ethics first.

Update

Great news! Following thousands of your e-mails and talks with PETA, Urban Decay has announced that it won't sell its products in China until non-animal testing methods are accepted there. We are delighted that Urban Decay is staying true to its ethic of producing top-quality products without harming animals—even though it means giving up a market share in China—and we're pleased to return the company to our list of cruelty-free companies! 

The following was originally published on June 7:

After years of touting its "no animal testing" policy, Urban Decay has let down caring consumers everywhere. The company opted to start selling its products in China even though Chinese law requires that cosmetics companies pay for many of their products to be tested on animals in Chinese laboratories before they can be marketed in that country.

For each test required by the Chinese government, superior non-animal methods are available. PETA has jump-started the effort for acceptance of non-animal tests by awarding a grant to the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, which is working with scientists and regulatory bodies to replace animal tests in China. Thanks to the work of these PETA-funded scientists, the Chinese government is now poised to accept its first-ever non-animal test for cosmetics ingredients.

Urban Decay has long held a spot on PETA's list of cruelty-free companies and offers an extensive line of vegan makeup, but it has turned its back on animals. Urban Decay could delay its entry into China, but the company is putting profits over principles.