Hollywood has joined forces with the Humane Society International to produce a new stop-motion short film, Save Ralph, aimed at putting a global end to cosmetic testing on animals.
By Dougie Mackie
The four-minute animated film features the voices of Taika Waititi, Ricky Gervais, Zac Efron, Olivia Munn, Pom Klementieff and Tricia Helfer, and is written and directed by Spencer Susser (Hesher, The Greatest Showman).
There are 40 counties that have already banned animal testing for cosmetics. New Zealand is one of them.
The campaign is focused on 16 countries that haven't, including Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, South Africa and 10 southeast Asian nations.
The Humane Society hopes it resonates with consumers and policymakers to help ban cosmetic animal testing worldwide.
"Save Ralph is a wake-up call that animals are still suffering for cosmetics and now is the time for us to come together to ban it globally," says Jeffrey Flocken, Humane Society International’s president.
"Today we have an abundance of reliable, animal-free approaches for product safety assurance, so there’s no excuse for making animals like Ralph suffer to test cosmetics or their ingredients."
Waititi tweeted prior to the launch: “This is a cool thing that is coming soon. If you don’t watch it and love it then you hate animals and we can’t be friends anymore. #SaveRalph.”
Comedian Gervais, who is also well known for his animal advocacy, has also weighed in.
“Animal testing just makes me angry," he says. "There’s no justification for dripping chemicals in rabbits’ eyes or force-feeding them to rats just to make lipsticks and shampoo. Science has evolved enough to give us non-animal solutions to end this terrible cruelty— it’s time for our humanity to catch up.”
Helfer, a self-described animal lover, said she's honoured to have taken part in the "important, moving campaign".
"Although we have made progress in some countries, globally there are still thousands of innocent animals just like Ralph who are made to suffer every day," she says. "Now is the time to change that."
More information about the project and cause is available here .
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