In a landmark victory for animal rights campaigners, the beauty firm Sephora will stop the use of mink in its production of fake eyelashes. It was reported earlier this year, following an investigation by People for the Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA), that mink were being caged and killed in order to produce fake eyelashes, something that the vast majority of consumers seemed to be unaware of.
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The PETA investigation showed mink being kept in tiny cages, often receiving terrible injuries due to the wire of their enclosures, whilst also being denied proper food, water and veterinary care. The animals were then gassed to death when they had fulfilled their use in the production process, their fur then being sold on to produce clothing items.
This investigation sparked fury about the practice and many major news sites ran with the story, making public knowledge the true cost of non-synthetic fake eyelashes.
The beauty brand put out a statement saying:
"At Sephora, we have always been committed to upholding the highest standards of beauty, and we take our responsibility to communicate transparently and honestly with our clients about the products we carry seriously. As we shared with PETA, earlier this year we had already decided to begin phasing mink products out of our assortment in 2020. We have only ever offered products our clients can trust and we stand by the people and partners who have made the Sephora experience what it is today."
PETA made clear that people should continue to only source, purchase and wear those fake eyelashes that are entirely synthetic. While praising Sephora they went on to say:
"We're celebrating Sephora's decision to join Tarte, Too Faced, Urban Decay, and the scores of other brands that know that shy, solitary minks should be left in peace to forage, climb, and swim and that stealing an animal's fur is ugly. As we pointed out in our letters to Sephora, mink fur typically comes from fur farms, which are often laden with maggots, and dead animals (along with COVID-19 now, too). PETA's undercover investigations have revealed that on these hellish, filthy farms, stressed minks frantically pace and circle endlessly inside small wire cages—during one eyewitness exposé, a mink even chewed through a cage until her face was bloody."
They then went on to criticise firm Lilly Lashes who they say are still using Mink based eyelashes and accused them of even falsely labelling these mink lashes as 'vegan':
"False-eyelash company Lilly Lashes still tries to deceive customers in a similar way: Knowing that no one wants to buy vile animal fur, Lilly Lashes even goes so far as to market some mink fur lashes as 'vegan.' These companies know that mink fur comes from animals who live and die horribly—but instead of making a real difference for animals by ending their sale of mink lashes, they hide behind marketing ploys."
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