WHB/2/3
Sponsored by Sydney Douglas, Yulissa Gerard, Madeline Claire Stefaniuk of Baylor School
This legislation was filed in the Agriculture category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section 1) Terms in this act shall be defined as follows: |
| 4 | a. Animal Testing: Invasive procedures performed on living animals for research into diseases, |
| 5 | assessing the effectiveness of medicinal products, and testing the reactions of cosmetic |
| 6 | enhancements on animals. |
| 7 | b. Animal Cruelty: The infliction by omission or by commission by humans of suffering or harm |
| 8 | upon non-human animals. |
| 9 | c. Humane Cosmetics Law: An act to ban the use of animal testing for cosmetics, or for other |
| 10 | chemical purposes. Including prohibiting the sale of products developed using animal testing. |
| 11 | d. Animal Matters organization: A volunteer-run organization dedicated to promoting the welfare of |
| 12 | wild, companion, farm and laboratory animals throughout the world and online advocacy. |
| 13 | e. PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; opposes the abuse of animals in any way, |
| 14 | including food, research, clothing, and entertainment. |
| 15 | f. CADD: Software known as Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD) is used to predict the receptor |
| 16 | binding site for a potential drug molecule. CADD works to identify probable binding sites and hence |
| 17 | avoids testing of unwanted chemicals having no biological activity. |
| 18 | g. Vitro models: Use of in vitro cell and tissue cultures which involve growth of cells outside the |
| 19 | body in laboratory environment can be an important alternative for animal experiments. The cells |
| 20 | and tissues from the liver, kidney, brain, skin etc. are removed from an animal and can be kept |
| 21 | outside the body, in suitable growth medium, for a few days to several months or even for a few |
| 22 | years. |
| 23 | h. Cosmetic Market: The manufacturing, selling, and buying of cosmetic and beauty products. |
| 24 | i. PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies Program: Program that can label companies as “cruelty-free” if |
| 25 | they not only ban animal tests, but also refuse to use any animal-derived ingredients such as, |
| 26 | honey, beeswax, etc. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Section 2) All Cosmetic companies performing animal testing procedures on animals shall be |
| 29 | removed from Cosmetics Market. |
| 30 | a) Animal testing procedures include but are not limited to: Skin and eye irritation test where |
| 31 | chemicals are rubbed onto animals shaved skin, chemicals are put into the eyes of restrained |
| 32 | animals, and chemicals are injected into the skin of animals. |
| 33 | b) All companies must be tested by PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies Program to confirm they have |
| 34 | not tested on Animals and keep their products on the market. |
| 35 | c) Any Company found in violation and that does not get approved by PETA will be immediately |
| 36 | restricted from being sold in stores. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | Section 3) All companies that were taken off the market will need to switch to cosmetic testing |
| 39 | |
| 40 | a) Alternatives: Vitro models, cell cultures, computer models, new imaginings, and analyzing |
| 41 | techniques can all be used to replace live test subjects. |
| 42 | b) Advantages to using alternatives listed above: time efficiency, less workers needed, and more |
| 43 | cost efficient. Thousands of existing safe cosmetics chemicals that can be combined with non- |
| 44 | animal testing methods. |
| 45 | c) The companies will be allowed 4-6 months to convert to cruelty free alternatives for testing. The |
| 46 | company will then be retested by PETA to ensure that it abides by all the guidelines listed. |
| 47 | |
| 48 | Section 4) All companies that are found guilty of continuing to use cosmetic animal testing shall be |
| 49 | charged with a Class A misdemeanor according to the company's head of Cosmetic testing, and |
| 50 | the company as a whole would have to pay a fine of $10,000 and up per offense. |
| 51 | a) The company’s head of Cosmetics will be determined by who is officially appointed by contract |
| 52 | to oversee the testing of the company’s products. |
| 53 | b) The amount that shall be payed will start at $10,000 for a first-time offense, second time |
| 54 | offense the amount shall be doubled, and any offenses from there on out shall be 20% of the |
| 55 | company’s entire net worth shall be awarded to PETA. |
| 56 | c) The company’s net worth includes all assets including any sub-companies that the company |
| 57 | charged with the violation have ownership of. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | Section 5) This act requires no funding and will be enforced by the Tennessee Department of |
| 60 | Agriculture under the direction of the USDA. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | Section 6) All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | Section 8) This act shall take effect on December 10th, 2025. |
| 65 |