China Southern Airlines agrees to stop shipping primates for animal testing

In China the testing of animals on cosmetic products and ingredients is still required for certain categories, something that animal rights organisations such as PETA Cruelty-Free International have been fighting to change in recent years.

In an e-mail, Chen Qiuhua, senior cargo manager for China Southern, stated that the airline will “stop transporting live primates for laboratory experiments on all flights of China Southern Airlines, effective from March 21, 2014″.​

Air France is the last airline standing!​

The move means that Air France is now the only major international airline that still ships primates destined for animal experiments in laboratories, PETA claims.

The decision by China Southern Airlines executives is the result of continued campaign that has seen PETA stage protests at airports and company offices across the globe, together with a social media campaign that involved emailing more than 100,000 PETA members and affiliates.

This means that commonly rats, rabbits and guinea pigs are still commonly used for testing of cosmetic products and ingredients, although the country’s regulations do not officially restrict testing on primates, either.

PETA claims it takes 72 animals to test one cosmetic product​

According to PETA, current China regulations mean that the average product is tested on approximately 72 animals, including rabbits, mice, rats and there is still evidence of testing being carried out on primates.

According to a number of reports, primates are still sometimes used for skin irritation and eye irritation testing, though there is no documented evidence of the numbers used and rabbits and mice have become the preferred animals to conduct such tests on.

More commonly monkeys are used for medical and pharmaceutical research.

Although rules have been introduced at the beginning of this year to tighten the regulation of animal testing on cosmetics in China, experts say that the new rules give companies the choice to manufacture cosmetics without animal testing, but does not outlaw the practice.