NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

December 2025

Bunny in cage | © Joan Montes/Wirestock - Adobe Stock

Tell Congress to Pass the Humane Cosmetics Act!

Animals should not suffer and die just to test cosmetics and their ingredients. Yet rabbits, mice, rats, and guinea pigs are still subject to these painful, unnecessary tests despite reliable, non-animal methods being widely available and more applicable to human responses to chemical exposures.

Alternatives can replace animal suffering!

The Humane Cosmetics Act (HCA) would finally end this cruelty in the United States by prohibiting animal testing for cosmetics and their ingredients, as well as the sale of cosmetics tested on animals. It would also require companies to ensure the safety of their cosmetic products and ingredients by relying only on data produced through non-animal alternatives—a compassionate, smarter approach to science.

Animal testing is unnecessary, outdated, and unethical.

Please contact your Representative today to urge them to cosponsor the Humane Cosmetics Act. Animals should not suffer for vanity, and with your voice, we can end this archaic use of animals.

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Other News

CDC to End Its Primate Research

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been told to phase out all monkey research, ending studies on about 200 macaques used for infectious-disease experiments by the end of 2025. This is the first time since the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ended support of chimpanzee experimentation in 2015 that a federal agency has ended its in-house primate research. The fate of the monkeys at the CDC remains unclear, although there is a possibility that they could be released to a sanctuary. This decision does not cover the almost 7,000 primates whom the NIH oversees at other facilities.

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Alternatives in Chemical, Drug Testing on the Rise

The use of alternatives to replace animals is on the rise in drug and chemical safety testing. Also referred to as New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), these non-animal models are increasingly being recognized by regulators in Europe and the U.S. as reliable for producing human-relevant data, especially in cosmetics testing. While NAMs show great potential in biomedical research, validation challenges remain and hinder the full replacement of animal tests. Another issue is profit-driven: if companies can make more money using live animals, that could affect the adoption of NAMs.

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SANCTUARY MOMENT

Save the Chimps

Magic Guides Tootie

We know that compassion is not a uniquely human trait. Animals have the capacity for care, as well. One heartwarming example is that of Magic and Tootie at Save the Chimps, a sanctuary in Florida.

Twenty years her junior, Magic became fast friends with Tootie when she joined his family group. Recently, when Tootie’s eyesight started to steadily decline, Magic showed not only her depth of compassion and empathy, but also her perceptive, kind nature, as she became his seeing-eye guide. When Tootie loses his way or stays out late, Magic will nudge him toward the right path and, with her hand on his back, walk him back to their night house.

The other chimps also show remarkable gentleness around Tootie, giving him space and moving more slowly so he can keep up. The sanctuary has even added extra handrails and guides to help Tootie get around and climb to his favorite observation spot.

We’re grateful to Save the Chimps—a longtime recipient of AAVS sanctuary grants—for providing Tootie, Magic, and the rest of their family a safe home where they can continue to live life to its fullest.

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