By ANABELLA ZAMBRANO

California is now first in line to pass the “Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act” which will make it illegal for any products tested on animals to be sold in the state. These products include make up brands, house cleaning detergents, medicine, air refreshers and even food.

Companies like Maybelline, NARS, Benefit Cosmetics and cleaning detergent TIDE are among the hundreds of companies who test on animals but will not make a direct statement admitting it. Even though they don’t test on animals within the U.S., they still are guilty of these practices because they still sell in mainland China.

By law, China requires animal testing for foreign cosmetics companies. Make up brand NARS was cruelty-free until last year, in 2017, when it decided to sell in China to expand its brand and raise sales.

These testing procedures range from injecting the product in a rabbit’s eye with no pain killers, beagle puppies forced to inhale toxic chemicals or rats eating certain products and study how they react. It is illegal for people to take pictures of these procedures or even document them. Lack of coverage or news reports have prevented this bill to be passed.

According to VegNews.com, The California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act (SB 1249) was unanimously passed with a vote of 80-0 in the state assembly. Sen. Cathleen Galliani sponsored the bill and it will officially become law on Jan. 1, 2020.

“I’m proud of California lawmakers for moving science, industry, and ethics forward today,” Galliani said.

The cruelty-free controversy would not even be happening if it wasn’t for social media. Through Instagram, Twitter and Facebook groups numerous animal activists and animal lovers are the one’s who brought this problem to the public eye.

Animal testing is something that is highly protected by powerful make up brands and they have tried to hide their animal practices to the consumer.