ON Thursday, November 17, the European Parliament voted on proposals which could mean millions of animals will die in what will be Europe's largest ever mass animal testing programme.
The tests will mean that dogs and rabbits, as well as rodents and fish, have powerful chemicals applied to their skin, dripped in their eyes or fed to them in huge and toxic doses – causing considerable pain.
The proposal, known as REACH (the Regist
ration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals), is intended to assess the safety of thousands of chemicals which were released on to the market prior to 1981, when manufacturers had no obligation to test them.
Many of the chemicals are present in everyday substances from paint to drinking straws, and as a result may be presenting a serious threat to human health and/or the environment.
While we agree that safety tests do need to be carried out, animal tests are not the answer. There are many effective, modern and humane ways of assessing their safety rather than old-fashioned, irrelevant and inhumane animal tests – which tell us only about animals rather than humans.
Fortunately, there is something that can prevent this animal suffering – readers can go to our website (www.buav.org) to sign our petition which calls on the Government to support non-animal methods.
Or they can write to their MEP, asking them to vote in favour of non-animal tests.
Adolfo Sansolini,
Chief Executive,
BUAV.
