PETA Netherlands Paves the Way to Animal-Free Research and Testing

The Dutch Parliament has declared its support for ending animal testing in the Netherlands! It took meetings, a survey of the public, petitions signed by supporters of PETA entities, an open letter signed by 25 Dutch scientists, and proposed motions, but PETA entities have successfully persuaded the Dutch House of Representatives to accept a series of motions to reduce laboratory testing on animals.

Animals used in experiments can be isolated in cages, traumatised, and subjected to horrific pain. Instead of treating them like intelligent, sensitive beings with emotions and a will to live, experimenters poison, maim, blind, drug, burn, and kill animals for tests whose results are often useless when applied to humans.

The Dutch Parliament accepted eight motions that will push the country to take steps to reduce the number of animal experiments. The motions urge the government to do the following:

Create an action plan to accelerate the transition to animal-free innovation to contribute to better research, better medicines, and a significant reduction in the number of animals used in experiments
Stimulate the further development of artificial intelligence to help discover non-animal methods quickly and efficiently and thus ensure compliance with the law and reduce the number of animal experiments
Set a timetable for ending the use of animals for safety testing and inform the House about this as soon as possible
Develop an action plan to achieve a rapid reduction in the number of animals who are killed without having been used for breeding or experiments
Prioritise Dutch funding initiatives for animal-free innovation that contribute to an immediate decrease in animal testing
Map out which areas of animal testing have little to no predictive value and investigate how to phase out these tests
Incorporate the so-called OMA model – central to which is the research question and most successful method of addressing it, not the animal test – in the Transition Programme for Innovation without the use of animals
Resolve the bottlenecks, where possible, on the route from the laboratory to practice, and report on this annually to the House

But it’s not a total victory just yet: the Dutch government hasn’t honoured its previous commitment to phasing out animal testing.

Broken Promises

In 2016, the Dutch government pledged to set an example by developing a plan to phase out animal experiments – but it has failed to meet that objective. Since 2016, the number of procedures on animals has remained stagnant.

Innovative methods – like computer modelling, high-tech human-patient simulators, research using human volunteers, and in vitro testing – generate reliable results that can actually benefit humans, without causing immeasurable animal suffering.

Take stroke research, for example. In 2020, about 8,800 people died from strokes in the Netherlands. Yet experiments on animals aimed at helping stroke sufferers have a 100% failure rate. More effective treatments are desperately needed, but precious time and resources are wasted on cruel, unreliable animal tests while patients are left waiting.

It’s Time for the Research Modernisation Deal!

The decision of the Dutch Parliament to move towards animal-free science reflects the changing times. We need to move away from archaic tests on animals in the Netherlands and around the globe.

PETA UK’s Research Modernisation Deal maps out a strategy for replacing the use of animals in experiments with human-relevant methods.

This will help advance science; lead to desperately needed treatments, cures, and vaccines for humans; and end the almost unimaginable suffering of millions of mice, rats, dogs, primates, rabbits, fish, and other animals.