Lush is encouraging customers to sign petitions to their local MPs to establish funded research streams for the development of non-animal-based scientific testing.

Lush expects MPs to receive over 23,000 signed letters from its customers as part of the company’s promotion of Animal-Free Science Advocacy’s ‘I am not a labtool’ campaign.

“Over the years Lush campaigns and initiatives such as the Lush Prize, have made strides towards funding, and raising awareness about, alternative methods – but there is still plenty to be done and we’ll continue this fight until animal testing is eradicated worldwide,” Lush ANZ advocacy and activism executive Jessielee Pearce said.

The cosmetics retailer cited AFSA’s data reporting that 10.7 million animal lives, including cats, dogs, rabbits, primates and more, were taken for lab experiments in Australia from 2021 to 2022.

It added that other countries such as the Netherlands, the UK, and the US have already made significant investments in animal-free research.

“Without government commitment to facilitate greater accountability and allocate funding towards the innovation of non-animal alternative methods, there’s very little incentive for Australian researchers and institutions to stop using animal methods and we will fall further behind other countries where a transition to animal-free methods is a clear end goal,” AFSA’s CEO Rachel Smith said.

The promotion will run until April 10.