Good News! The Beginning of the End of the Forced Swim Test in Ireland?
Ireland is moving to ban many uses of the cruel forced swim test, which sees mice and rats placed in a beaker of water and forced to swim for their lives.
Back in 2023, PETA presented to all EU Member State authorities, including Ireland, calling on them to end the use of the forced swim test. Since then, we shared vital scientific information with Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) and it has recently published advice commissioned from the National Committee for the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific Purposes (NCPA) to severely restrict the horrific experiment.
The forced swim test will no longer be authorised as a model of depression, or to study “depression-like” behaviours or for studying anxiety disorders. This is due to “questions over its validity for these purposes.” Additionally, animals will no longer be permitted to swim to exhaustion.
What Is the Forced Swim Test?
The forced swim test involves placing small animals such as mice and rats in inescapable containers of water and forcing them to swim for their lives, while experimenters watch and record their behaviour.
Rodents fear drowning just like we do – and the animals panic, desperately trying to climb the smooth sides of the beakers or diving underwater in search of an exit, paddling frantically just to keep their heads above water. Eventually, exhausted and terrified, they begin to float.
Expert scientists heavily criticise the claim that rodents who swim for a longer time have more will to live than those who start to float. They point out that floating is a natural, positive sign of adapting to a new environment, and nothing to do with despair.
The Forced Swim Test in Ireland
Since 1994, there have been 69 published articles from Irish universities that have used the forced swim test, with potentially thousands of rats and mice subjected to this cruel experiment and yielding potentially pointless animal data for human conditions.
Some 39% of these experiments used the forced swim test to assess depression-like behaviour, which will now be banned.
Some experimenters also used it alongside other cruel tests, such as hanging animals by their tails, stretching their rectums to induce pain, and delivering electric shocks to their ears.
The Scientific Community Ditches Forced Swim Test
In a letter to PETA, the HPRA have confirmed that the advice has been shared with those who are permitted to conduct the forced swim test in Ireland and that the advice will impact any future requests to conduct it.
PETA will continue to push for an end to all uses of the cruel forced swim test and other experiments on animals.
Around the world, at least 18 pharmaceutical companies and many top universities across the UK and internationally have confirmed that they do not use the test and will not do so in the future. The UK government have committed to eliminate all uses of the test.
Take Action for Animals in Laboratories
Pharma giant Novartis continues to support the forced swim test. Send the company a message today:
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