Dr Hadwen Trust welcomes today

Dr Hadwen Trust welcomes today’s revised Directive 86/609/EEC on animal experiments

Dr Hadwen Trust welcomes today’s revised Directive 86/609/EEC on animal experiments

Dr Hadwen Trust welcomes today’s revised Directive 86/609/EEC on animal experiments but warns against wasting ‘once in a lifetime opportunity for Europe to lead the world’ in humane alternatives.

The European Commission has today (Nov 5th) finally adopted its long-delayed legislative proposal [1] to revise the now 20-year-old Directive 86/609/EEC [2] on the protection of animals in experiments. Scientists from ethical research charity the Dr Hadwen Trust [3] cautiously welcome the proposals but warn the new Directive must be about more than ‘token gestures and bigger cage sizes’. The charity says this is a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity for Europe to lead the world in replacing animal experiments’.

More than 12 million animals are used in EU labs each year [4] however, over twenty years of scientific developments, including non-animal alternatives, are not reflected in the existing legislation. Additionally, animals used for basic medical research, education and training, have been left unregulated, and hundreds of thousands of sentient fetal and invertebrate animals are experimented on each year without any legal protection at all.

There is also no harmonised process to ethically review and prospectively authorise animal research in the member states, meaning many experiments are likely to have been duplicated or could have been replaced by non-animal alternative test methods.

The Commission first acknowledged in 2001 that the Directive was outdated and in need of improvement. Progress on producing a draft has been painfully slow. Today’s draft legislation does include a great ape test ban (with exceptions), but as no apes are used in EU research at the moment, this is considered by many animal advocates as something of a token gesture. Mandatory prospective and retrospective ethical review of some (but not all) animal experiments has also been proposed.

Non-animal medical research charity the Dr Hadwen Trust has cautiously welcomed the proposals but says much more must be done to speed up the replacement of animals with non-animal methods.

Emily McIvor, Dr Hadwen Trust Policy Director, says: “It is regrettable that animals in laboratories have had to wait so long for this inadequate law to be updated. Far too many animals have no protection from even the very highest levels of suffering, and we must act to change that. The Dr Hadwen Trust welcomes today’s draft legislation and some of the positive measures it contains such as the ban on use of great apes in experiments. However, it is vital that the revision of Directive 86/609 is about more than token gestures and bigger cage sizes. To make this law fit for a morally and scientifically progressive 21st century, the ultimate goal of replacing animals with alternatives must be right at the heart of the legislation. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Europe to lead the world in ending animal experiments and replacing them with the most technologically advanced non-animal techniques science can offer.”

The Dr Hadwen Trust is leading the campaign for an EU-wide strategy to vastly increase investment in new non-animal replacement methods through Directive 86/609. In July this year the charity brought world renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall DBE [5] to the European Parliament to hand in a 150,000 signature petition from citizens in thirteen member states calling for greater action on alternatives including the creation of an EU Centre of Excellence in replacement research.

What will the Dr Hadwen Trust be lobbying for in Brussels?

  • Establishment of an EU Centre of Excellence to prioritise development of non-animal replacement methods across all current animal uses including basic medical research. Current EU activity focuses just on regulatory toxicology which only constitutes around 10% of EU animal use.
  • Extension of the scope of the Directive to include all sentient animals used by the research industry incl. invertebrates and fetal forms, as well as animals used in basic research, in education and training, and those killed for their tissues or used in the production and maintenance of genetically modified strains
  • A complete immediate ban on experiments causing severe or prolonged pain, suffering or distress
  • Clear targets for decreasing animal use through application of replacement techniques as part of a properly funded EU-wide strategy

In a related development, an EU Science Committee [6] will tomorrow (Nov 6) hold a public hearing on Europe’s primate research in order to produce a scientific opinion for legislators working on Directive 86/609. The Committee was asked by the EU Commission to produce an independent scientific Opinion. However the Dr Hadwen Trust has condemned the Committee’s draft Opinion, which avoids almost any criticism of primate research despite well known failings and seriously underplays the immense potential of more relevant non-animal techniques.

The Dr Hadwen Trust now calls on the European Parliament and the Council to take up discussions of the new Directive as a matter of priority. If it is not discussed in the EU Parliament by the June 2009 European elections, the legislation and hence better protection for animals, will be significantly delayed.

Notes

1. The draft proposal has been adopted by the Commission and announced at a press briefing today Nov 5 at 13.00hrs, Berlaymont Building, 200 Wetstraat/Rue de la Loi, 1040 – Brussels.

2. Council Directive 86/609/EEC of 24 November 1986 on the approximation of laws and administrative provisions of the Member States regarding the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes.

3. The Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research is the UK’s leading non-animal medical research charity. www.drhadwentrust.org and www.endeuanimaltests.org

4. 12.1 million animals were used in EU experiments in 2005; Fifth Report on the Statistics on the Number of Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes in the Member States of the European Union published 5/11/2007 (these are the most recent EU wide statistics available).

5. Jane Goodall PhD, DBE is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace. www.janegoodall.org

6. The Scientific Committee on Health & Environmental Risks (SCHER), European Commission, Brussels, Nov 6th, 10am – 4.30am.

7. EU citizens have indicated strong support for more ambitious laws to protect animals. A 2005 EUROBAROMETER survey recorded that 82% of EU citizens believe we have a duty “to protect the rights of animals whatever the cost”. A 2006 EU Commission survey showed that 93% of respondents believe more needs to be done to improve the welfare/protection of experimental animals and 79% believe there is not EU funding for alternative methods to replace animal experiments.