Lush award of over €300,000 to go to 'excellence' in animal testing alternative area

By Michelle Yeomans

- Last updated on GMT

Lush award of over €300,000 to go to 'excellence' in animal testing alternative area

Related tags Animal testing

The global cosmetics company is to reward efforts towards replacing animal use in product safety testing with a ‘Lush prize’ of £250,000 (€312,000) set to be divided between five categories to those demonstrating excellence in the sector.

The new initiative is seeking nominations from specialist institutions, an individual or team working in the sector making progress in areas like science, research, lobbying and public awareness.

The prize is set to be presented at an annual award ceremony in November every year where Lush is ultimately seeking to reward the work “of exceptional individuals, groups or organizations pushing for change in this area​.”

Moreover, the company says that if a nominee is deemed to represent a major breakthrough in 21st Century Toxicology they may be awarded the full amount.

Rewarding efforts

According to the global player, the annual prize is the biggest in the non-animal testing sector and can be awarded to projects anywhere in the world to reflect the international nature of the issue.

A panel of ten independent judges including research scientists, campaigners, politicians, members of the public and academics are to pick winners in October from a short-list compiled by the Lush Prize Team.

Other efforts in this area​ 

Back in April, Lush rolled out its largest-ever global anti-animal testing campaign, whereby staff staged protests and performance stunts in over 800 stores across 49 countries to coincide with World Week for Animals in Laboratories.

One ‘performance’ in particular at the company’s UK flagship store caught most of the media’s attention whereby a girl trained in public sculpture and extreme endurance performance re-enacted what the company says animals go through in cosmetics testing labs.

Then Lush campaigns manager, Tamsin Omond said; “The performance represented a fraction of the pain that animals endure daily so that the cosmetics industry can continue testing on animals rather than committing to alternatives and ending product development​,”

The stunt featured 28 year old Jacqui India being force-fed, having her eye irritated and bandaged and her skin braised and injected with ingredients, all in full view of the public in the Regent Street shop window.

“The torture will end for India when her performance finishes; for the majority of tested animals their torture ends with death​,” Omond had told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com.  

 

 

 

Related topics Regulation & Safety Animal Testing

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