Artist Undergoes "Torture" In Front of London Shoppers For Anti-Animal-Testing Stunt

A 24-year-old performance artist spent ten hours being tortured in a London shop window as part of an animal rights campaign by UK-based cosmetics company Lush and Humane Society International.

Jacqueline Traide agreed to put on a flesh-colored bodystocking and be force fed, smothered with lotions, and have her hair shaved in full view of on-lookers passing by the Lush store on Regent Street. The message of the stunt being "stop testing cosmetics on animals" (Lush is a "cruelty-free" chain).

Jacqueline is an extraordinary performer who was safe and supported through the ordeal. Our incredible Lush staff stood outside the shop and ensured that children and their families were warned against the spectacle whilst still being encouraged to sign the Cosmetics Directive 2013 petition. We have not added to the pain endured by millions of animals daily: we have only projected a pain that happens behind closed walls into a public shop window on a very public high street.

"I hope it will plant the seed of a new awareness in people to really start thinking about what they go out and buy and what goes into producing it," Traide, who studies social sculpture at Oxford Brookes University, told The Daily Mail.

Cosmetics testing on animals was banned throughout Europe years ago, but selling animal-tested products remains legal in the UK and elsewhere.