Silverstone Pushes Testing Ban

Alicia Silverstone, actress and author of vegan manifesto The Kind Diet, has written an open letter to European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli urging the European Union to move forth with pending legislation to ban animal testing on cosmetics. Earlier this year, the European Union put legislation in place to institute the ban by 2013, but recently the deadline has been thrown into question. In the letter, Silverstone outlines the personal, political, and ethical reasons why she supports the ban, including the health of her baby and the cruelty and inefficiency of animal testing, and closes by stating, “We need to encourage cosmetics companies to keep investigating new testing methods that will better protect both humans and animals. Please do all you can to keep this ban on track for 2013.”