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Despite continuous efforts from the world’s animal rights organizations the numbers of companies and scientific laboratories still utilizing animal testing seem to be rising.

At the start of the year’s most important conference on the development of alternatives to animal testing, animal welfare groups are expressing concern over the increasing number of animals used for experiments.

Laying aside the progress made since the terminology like Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal testing was instigated in order to aid the cause worldwide introduced 50 years ago, the number of animals used annually for research in the European Union is more than 12.1 million, according to the latest EU statistics (2), and is still rising.

At the beginning of the 7th World Congress on Alternatives & Animal Use in the Life Sciences, which takes place in Rome from August 30 to September 3, Eurogroup for Animals is expressing its hope that the event, which will bring together worldwide representatives of NGOs, industry and science as well as authorities and decision-makers, will mark a new chapter for animals used in research.

The Congress’s motto is ‘Calling on Science’, and aims to highlight scientific progress covering innovative technologies, areas of animal use including the development of pharmaceuticals and safety assessment of specific product types, and scientific developments relevant to the 3Rs.

“The increase in numbers shows that relying on science is not enough,” says Sonja Van Tichelen, Director of Eurogroup for Animals. “Fifty years on from the introduction of the 3Rs, we now stand at a crossroads where major policy decisions must be taken to speed up the progress towards non-animal research. A coherent strategy, combined with EU and worldwide collaboration is absolutely essential to reach our targets.”

Eurogroup feels that a far stricter scrutiny of the use of animals is required for all research, including EU-funded projects; that more investment should be made into alternatives to animal testing, that a review of all legislative requirements involving animal use, such as food safety, should be undertaken as well as an impact assessment for all new policies; and that the EU should adopt an overall coherent strategy to work towards phasing out all animal use.

Examples in Japan pointed out by the Japan Anti-Vivisection Association (JAVA), who often work with PETA Asia Pacific, recently reported that Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido continues their reliance on animal tests for its products, which include wrinkle creams and perfumes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 9:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.