PETA Scientists Help Prevent Cruel Test on Animals!
With support from PETA Scientists, hundreds of animals have been spared from a cruel and avoidable test!
Under EU law, testing on animals must only be conducted as a last resort – yet the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) requested an archaic chemical test to be carried out on pregnant rats and their young.
Pregnant Rats Forced to Ingest Chemicals
This test, which can involve up to 1,200 animals per chemical, typically forces rats to swallow or inhale chemicals for weeks, from mating through pregnancy and lactation. The babies are also exposed to the chemicals as they grow, often leading to painful health issues and death.
ECHA mistakenly requested this test based on flawed reasoning. Intervention by PETA scientists helped chemical company LANXESS push back and appeal against the request – preventing hundreds of animals from being killed in a test without scientific or legal justification. This decision also ensures that future companies reducing their production will not be forced into additional animal testing.
Preventing Deaths
Under EU chemicals law, the amount of a chemical a company produces determines how many tests it must perform to prove its safety. If a company makes less of that chemical, it must do fewer tests. In this case, the amount of chemicals produced by LANXESS recently decreased, meaning they should have faced fewer testing requirements. However, ECHA dismissed this change and insisted on the additional testing, as if the company were still producing large amounts.
One way PETA scientists minimise testing on animals is by supporting companies in their appeals against requests from ECHA to conduct experiments on animals. We are delighted that the request for LANXESS to perform a reproductive toxicity test using more than a thousand animals was rejected.
This decision clarifies that ECHA can’t dismiss changes to a chemical’s production volume and demand tests based on old levels. Companies that lower their production won’t be unfairly pushed to do more testing. This case will help ensure that companies in similar situations won’t be forced to carry out avoidable tests on animals.
What You Can Do
Whilst the work of our science team has helped spare hundreds of animals from a miserable death in a laboratory, millions more are being abused in other types of experiments.
Over 2.7 million procedures on animals took place in British laboratories in 2022. Experimenters may infect animals with Zika virus or tuberculosis, electrocute them, or drill holes in their skulls before killing them.
You can help by signing PETA’s petition calling on the government to mandate an end to all experiments on animals and help create a future where no animal suffers in a laboratory:
