Features
Will Changes in Animal Laboratory Law Mean Changes for Animals in Laboratories?
More than 12 million animals are used in experiments in the EU every year, and each EU country's law governing animal experiments is based upon the same basic European law. In November 2008, the EU started the process of updating the existing law, and in September 2010, the new directive (known as Directive 2010/63/EU) was adopted in the EU. The directive must still be "transposed" to the national law of each country, and each country's existing law will remain in force until then – they have until the end of 2012 to complete transposition. So what's in the directive, and what does it mean for animals in laboratories?
A Mixed Picture
The new directive will control the circumstances under which animal experiments will be allowed in the EU, the way in which they will be authorised, the conditions in which animals are kept and the public availability of information about what's being done. It was introduced to try to reduce the huge variations in these conditions between different countries in the EU. There are 27 countries in total, from tiny nations such as Malta to giants such as Germany. Some countries have had very few controls on animal experiments, and there's no doubt that the new directive will substantially increase protection for animals in those countries. The main improvements in the law are the following:
- It bans the use of great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, orang-utans and gorillas) in experiments, except under exceptional circumstances.
- It includes some animals – such as octopuses – who weren't covered by the old law and so had no legal protection whatsoever.
- It ensures that experiments can't be carried out without advance approval from a government body and that the people who conduct them must have had some training.
- It introduces a requirement to ensure that some assessment of the potential harm to animals must be included in the approval process for experiments.
- It sets higher minimum standards for the supply of animals, laboratory housing and inspection of laboratories by officials.
- It places an obligation on countries to take action to encourage the development and use of alternative methods that either cause less suffering or don't use animals at all.
These new restrictions will relieve some animal suffering and may prevent some of the most pointless and cruel experiments from taking place. The bad news, however, is that in most respects the directive falls short of the kinds of controls and standards that already exist in many European countries, including the UK, and so it will do nothing to relieve the suffering of animals in laboratories in those countries. The number of animals used in experiments is going up in the UK (and is already among the highest in Europe), and experiments that cause terrible suffering are still permitted here. In the UK, a "harm-benefit" assessment has been required for every experiment for more than 20 years, but that hasn't stopped experimenters from testing cosmetics on animals, causing brain damage in monkeys or poisoning dogs to test pesticides.
PETA is opposed to all animal experiments, but until we can achieve an end to animal experiments, we want to see the tightest possible restrictions on them. The new directive falls a long way short of that, and while some animals will benefit, overall many more animals are going to suffer.
What Happens Now?
Governments across Europe are now rewriting their own laws to incorporate the measures in the directive. While the directive doesn't permit them to introduce stronger laws which give animals more protection, it does permit countries to retain stronger protection where it already exists. Scandalously, the UK government has not yet ruled out reducing the level of protection given to animals where UK standards are currently higher than those in the directive. PETA has already met with the government minister responsible for transposition to impress upon her the outrage that will result if the UK reduces its already poor level of protection for animals in laboratories. We are working as hard as we can to hold off any potential additional animal suffering and to press the government to use every opportunity available to them, no matter how small, to make the existing system less secretive, inadequate and unjust.
What You Can Do
Please contact the Home Secretary to ask her to ensure that the new UK law provides as much protection to animals as possible.
