With Chris Fisher - Agonès, France, 2006 (Photo: Adam Thorn)
Defeat is an orphan, but victory has many fathers. In other words, when something goes wrong it’s hard to find anyone who will take responsibility for the mistakes, but when an important result is achieved many feel deserving of praise.
That’s what is happening in the case of the ban on cosmetics testing on animals in the EU. Many people and organisations have indeed taken part in the countless initiatives developed over decades – and it is this massive support that has produced such an amazing result – but this is also an instance in which one specific person should be singled out and celebrated for his vision and commitment. That person is Chris Fisher.
On 11 March 2013 a total ban on animal testing for cosmetics came into force in the European Union. This does not mean that none of the cosmetics and toiletries we now find in European shops has been tested on animals, but that new animal testing for cosmetics or ingredients in Europe and testing outside Europe for sale in the EU are no longer possible. It’s a historic achievement, with long roots that reach back to the early ’90s.
In 1988 Chris Fisher was appointed Director of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV). In 1990 he decided to launch an EU-wide campaign to ban cosmetics testing on animals, which was set to become a key landmark for any campaigns for the welfare and rights of animals developed since then. It was the start of the Coalition to End Cosmetic Testing on Animals.
For the first time, organisations from around Europe not only came together around a single objective, but shared the same materials, images, slogans and lobby strategy. The cartoonish but graphic image of a rabbit used for experiments to test cosmetics – its name was Vanity – could be found on leaflets, petition forms and posters all over Europe, and the message ‘STOP TESTING COSMETICS ON ANIMALS’ became the main slogan on the lips of compassionate citizens and politicians around Europe.
Members of the European Parliament would be welcomed by such an image on posters displayed at Brussels airport, and on 9 November 1991 thousands of people gathered in Brussels for an international march and rally, where larger-than-life Vanity replicas joined the participants after touring hundreds of European towns.
This massive mobilisation led to a historic vote in Strasbourg in 1992, when the European Parliament asked for a ban on the marketing of cosmetic products and ingredients tested on animals after 1 January 1998.
The cosmetics industry, their European associations and the representatives of some Member States fought back, and this request was rejected, diluted and subjected to conditions that were likely to cause repeated delays in its implementation. This was indeed the case, with the result that a ban on animal testing of cosmetics products (but not ingredients) in the EU was not established until 2004, most tests of cosmetic ingredients on animals in the EU were made illegal in 2009, and only now do we have the total ban envisioned by Chris Fisher. Hopefully, a domino effect will soon sweep away all animal testing for the production of cosmetics and toiletries worldwide.
Sadly, Chris wasn’t to be with us to celebrate this day. After leaving the BUAV in 1993 and working for several other animal welfare organisations around Europe, eventually he moved to Agonès, near Montpellier in France, where he opened an art gallery, organised concerts and spent time looking after local feral cats… and the neighbour’s dog, pictured in the photo. The beautiful surroundings of Agonès offer great opportunities for long walks.
In 2009, coming back to London to have meetings with British animal welfare organisations interested in discussing possible collaboration, Chris was found unconscious on the train from the airport. He fell into a coma, emerged from it, and then decided to leave the hospital against medical advice as soon as he could stand up. He visited a few friends before travelling back to France. Chris was one of the first friends to see the flat I had just moved into, and together with Adam Thorn we enjoyed an Ethiopian lunch nearby. A long hug at King’s Cross station was the way we parted. Less than a week later a text message announced that Chris had been found dead on his sofa in his house in Agonès. Fortunately, his ideas have lived on – and sometimes prevailed, as happened on 11 March.
The time for mourning should now make way for a celebration of Chris’s life and achievements. The priceless legacy Chris has left us includes not only the end of cosmetics testing on animals, but the birth of more influential and effective animal welfare campaigns across and outside Europe. For that, no words of thanks can ever be enough.
