Animal rights activists yesterday rallied in front of the Legislative Yuan building, urging lawmakers to pass laws to ban animal testing in the making of cosmetics products.
More than a dozen people wearing white T-shirts that read: “Beauty with Heart,” fake bunny ears and holding signs that read: “Say no to animal testing” or bearing pictures of white rabbits used in such animal testing marched to the Legislative Yuan’s front gate yesterday morning.
The organizers of the rally — animal rights group the Life Conservationist Association and an international cosmetics company, said yesterday marked the one-year anniversary since the European Commission announced a total ban on animal testing for cosmetics.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The phasing out of animal testing for cosmetics in the EU began in 2003 with a ban on testing cosmetics products and cosmetics ingredients on animals. The EU later banned the sale of cosmetics products and ingredients that were tested on animals.
“Animal testing is only done because it is relatively cheap, but it limits the marketability of the products, because they cannot be sold to countries in the EU,” association member Tang Yi-jhih (湯宜之) said. “Taiwanese should learn from the EU’s example and refuse to use cosmetic products that were tested on animals.”
Taiwan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals executive director Connie Chiang (姜怡如) said that many cosmetics sold by international brands have proved that thousands of ingredients are safe, and no longer require animal testing.
She said animal testing for cosmetics include applying the ingredients or products on the skin of rabbits after their fur has been shaved off, dripping the substances into rabbits’ eyes and observing their reactions and “lethal dose tests” that test the limit of the animals’ survivability after being exposed to different dosages of chemicals.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) urged women in Taiwan to take a stand against animal testing by only using products that guaranteed they had not been tested on animals.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and Apollo Chen (陳學聖) also appeared at the rally to show their support and urge the public to boycott all cosmetics that had been tested on animals.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
RSS