Animal Rights Activists Protest at Home of Actress

About 50 animal rights supporters--including one dressed in a rabbit costume--demonstrated Saturday outside Cybill Shepherd’s home in Sherman Oaks, complaining that the actress profits from a cosmetics company that they allege tortures mice when testing products.

The protest, sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, targeted Shepherd for her work promoting L’Oreal cosmetics. Animal rights activists accused the Paris-based company of blinding, poisoning and torturing animals to test its products.

“We did an undercover investigation on L’Oreal and we found they fried live mice to test their sunscreen makeup,” said Dan Mathews, a spokesman for the animal rights group.

However, a spokesman for the company said: “We’ve stopped testing on animals in the United States for over two years.

“L’Oreal in Paris has reduced animal testing by using alternative methods. . . . They use animal tests on less than 1% of their new products. Eliminating animal testing . . . is their corporate goal,” said John D. Sullivan, a New York attorney representing L’Oreal.

Three protesters handcuffed themselves to the gate outside Shepherd’s home on Royal Oak Road for about three hours before leaving peacefully. There were no arrests and no injuries. Police and private security guards were stationed nearby throughout the demonstration.

The animal rights activists said Shepherd may have some clout with corporate executives to change the company’s research methods.

Mathews said cosmetics companies such as Avon, Revlon, Estee Lauder and Bennetton have changed the way they test products in part because of similar pressure from the animal rights movement.

“There is no need for them to use these techniques,” Mathews said. “There are plenty of companies that are making a lot of money in cosmetics without torturing animals.”

Among the protesters was actress Sara Gilbert, 17, who plays Roseanne Arnold’s daughter, Darlene, on “Roseanne.”