BUAV: EU adopts new legislation on animal experimentation

Wednesday, 8 September 2010 12:00 AM

The European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE), a coalition of key animal protection groups across the EU, has today declared the adoption of the new Directive a missed opportunity to introduce measures that would have given greater protection to animals used in experiments.

The revision of Directive 86/609/EEC started in November 2008. After 18 months of negotiations, a compromise between the Council of Ministers and the Parliament was adopted. The result is that most of the Commission's strongest proposals have been considerably weakened. The ECEAE is hugely disappointed that a majority of the Members of the European Parliament, heavily lobbied by the multi-billion pound animal research industry, have ignored strong public opinion.

The dropped proposals include strong restrictions on the use of non-human primates, b) strong restrictions on re-using individual animals, and a clear ban on experiments which involve severe and prolonged suffering. The European public would be shocked if they knew the type experiment and massive suffering which will still be allowed.

The Directive does include some improvements in areas that the ECEAE has been campaigning for such as the inclusion of almost all vertebrate species, a mandatory authorisation process for most research projects (though not for toxicity testing), periodic reviews of the directive (though the ECEAE believes the scope of the reviews is wholly inadequate), a classification of experiments according to the level of severity and guidelines for housing and care standards (though the ECEAE believes these should be much stronger and mandatory).

However, many important issues that received strong public support were not addressed during the revision process. For instance, a long-term strategy to reduce and ultimately replace the use of animals, compulsory adequate funding for the development of non-animal alternative methods, a ban on the use of cats and dogs and all experiments not for serious or life-threatening human conditions and the implementation of a system of data-sharing to avoid the duplication of animal experiments.

Green Party MEP, Ms Jill Evans, stated during the debate:

"We've been waiting several years for the update of this law and my group still has major areas of concern which is why we submitted our amendments.

For example, we believe Member States should keep the right to introduce stricter rules on animal protection as they have at the moment and as we agreed in first reading.

On non-human primates, we believe that without the word 'substantial' to define it, a debilitating condition could be interpreted as almost any human ailment rather than as a serious reduction in human health which is what the intention is here.

We know from experience with legislation in this field that implementation and enforcement are key to achieving effective legislation, and these issues are crucial ones."

ECEAE's Chief Executive, Michelle Thew states: 'We are extremely disappointed that a real opportunity to improve animal welfare and place greater restrictions on animal experimentation has been lost. It is not only animals in laboratories who will bear the cost of politicians' weakness and naivety; research into serious human illnesses will also be retarded because of the proven unreliability of so many animal experiments. This is inexcusable. We are pleased, however, that the Commission has clarified that non-animal alternatives have to be used wherever they are scientifically suitable'.

Footage and images of animals in UK and EU laboratories are available. For these or further information, contact Fleur Dawes at fleur.dawes@buav.org or +44(0) 7850 510 955 or +44 (0) 207 619 6978
www.eceae.org

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