Public Awareness Prize

Despite years of campaigning, animal testing has yet to be consigned to the history books where it belongs. However, partial legislative victories have led to the common misconception that animal testing, especially for cosmetics, no longer takes place.

It is vital therefore that the public is reminded that this cruel and unscientific practice does continue in many areas of the world. Support is essential for public awareness activities to ensure that this issue remains high on political and consumer agendas.

The Public Awareness Prize seeks to reward individuals or organisations raising public awareness of ongoing animal testing.

Winning projects share a £50,000 prize fund.

 

Entering

 
Entries for the next prize cycle are due to open in 2025.

Stay up to date about entry dates and other news by signing up for occasional email updates about the Prize:

 

Previous Winners

 

2024 Prize

Animal Aid, United Kingdom, £50,000
Project: Ban lethal dose animal tests.
animalaid.org.uk

2022 Prize

Ms Carlota Saorsa & Dr Carlos Contreras, Spain, £50,000
Project: Undercover investigation at Vivotecnia laboratory.

2020 Prize

SOKO Tierschutz, Germany (£50,000)
Project: Undercover investigation at the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology.
soko-tierschutz.org

2018 Prize

White Coat Waste Project, USA (£50,000)
Defunding and defeating taxpayer-funded animal testing.
http://www.whitecoatwaste.org

2017 Prize

AFABILITY, France / UK (£30,000)
AFABILITY is striving to replace animal derived antibody (ADA) production methods with Animal Friendly Affinity-reagents (AFAs) that do not require the use of animals, thereby significantly reducing the numbers and suffering of animals in the biomedical sciences.
http://www.afability.com

Te Protejo, Chile (£20,000)
We believe that we won the Public Awareness Prize because we have positioned the cruelty-free shopping lifestyle in Chile while educating consumers, teaching how to empower themselves and demand more ethical products.
http://www.teprotejo.cl

Daniela and Camila from ONG Te Protejo encourage anyone working to replace animal testing to nominate for the Lush Prize

2016 Prize

Vshine Animal Protection Association, China (£50,000)
Vshine have taken our Be Cruelty Free campaign, to end animal testing for cosmetics (in support of the Humane Society International), across China. In just one year we visited over 160 universities and 30 provincial-level administrative regions, reaching nearly 300,000 college students.
http://www.vshine.org

Also Commended:
ALTEX – Alternatives to Animal Experimentation, Switzerland
http://altex-edition.org

2015 Prize

(In 2015 £40,000 of prize money was shared, as a Black Box Prize was also awarded.)

SOKO Tierschutz EV, Germany (£20,000)
SOKO Tierschutz’s campaign against primate research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, was based on a ground-breaking undercover investigation. An activist worked for 6.5 months at the facility and was able to document – for the first time in Europe – the reality behind invasive experimental brain research on primates.
www.soko-tierschutz.org

Beagle Freedom Project, USA (£20,000)
For its Identity Campaign to highlight the suffering of dogs and cats in taxpayer-funded laboratories in the USA and encourage the public to use freedom of information legislation to advocate on behalf of those animals.
www.beaglefreedomproject.org

2014 Prize

Taiwan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TSPCA)
TSPCA aims to promote kindness towards, prevent cruelty to, and alleviate the suffering of animals in Taiwan by all legal means. It will achieve this through, educating, campaigning and lobbying, investigating cruelty and rehoming.
www.spca.org.tw

Humane Research Australia
HRAs recent campaign included the publication of a children’s (true) storybook called ‘Leo escapes from the lab’. Leo is an ex-laboratory cat who now serves as an ambassador to the millions of animals used in research every year. Its partnership with HSI’s Be Cruelty Free Campaign gained support from the Greens with the introduction of a private members bill to ban the testing of cosmetics on animals and public consultation by Labur.
www.humaneresearch.org.au

Humane Research Australia talk about what winning a Lush Prize meant for them.

2013 Prize

PETA, Laboratory Investigations Department, USA (£25,000)
For their high-profile campaigns against organisations that test on animals and that provide support services for animal testing.
http://www.peta.org/

SAFE (Save Animals from Exploitation), New Zealand (£25,000)
For publicising the use of animal-testing in national drugs regulation and helping consumers to buy cruelty-free products.
http://www.safe.org.nz/ 

New Zealand animal protection organisation SAFE won a Lush Prize for Public Awareness in 2013. In this video, they explain what winning a Lush Prize meant to them.

 

2012 Prize

Japan Anti-Vivisection Association, Japan (£30,000)
For their successful campaign to persuade Shiseido to abandon animal testing.
http://www.java-animal.org

Decipher Films, Canada (£10,000)
For their feature film ‘Maximum Tolerated Dose’ on animal testing
http://maximumtolerateddose.org

VITA Animal Rights Centre, Russia (£10,000)
For their work on awareness raising with the Russian media
http://www.vita.org.ru