PETA Calls For Moratorium on Animal Experimentation

In November 2019, we submitted a petition to the presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament calling on the EU to carry out a systematic review of all research areas in which animals are used. The petition was signed by over 117,000 supporters of PETA and our European affiliates – thank you to everyone who added their name to help shine a spotlight on the ethical and scientific issues inherent in animal testing and ensure that the matter is high on the agenda of EU decision-makers.

In May 2020, the European Parliament Committee on Petitions confirmed that our petition has been accepted as admissible. This is an important step forward, as it’ll now be formally considered by the committee and we’ll be able to put forward the case for animals.

Supporting a Moratorium on Animal Experimentation

As EU legislators review the law designed to protect animals used in experiments, we’re calling for a moratorium on all experiments on animals.

Although animals have the same capacity to feel pain and fear that we do, fundamental differences in our physiology mean that results from experiments on animals are rarely relevant to human health.

Systematic reviews have documented the overwhelming failure of experiments on animals to benefit humans in the areas of neurodegenerative disease, neuropsychiatric disorders, cardiovascular disease, strokes, cancer, diabetes, obesity, inflammatory disease, and more.

As studies on animals continue to be discredited, decades of research is undermined. Yet, despite these documented failures, approximately 11.5 million animals continue to be used in experiments in Europe every year. They may be poisoned, denied food or water, deprived of sleep, subjected to psychological distress, deliberately infected with diseases, intentionally brain-damaged, paralysed, surgically mutilated, irradiated, burned, gassed, force-fed, electrocuted, and killed.

European legislators have long said that the ultimate goal is to end all experiments on animals. And leading experts from around the world are increasingly challenging the scientific community to undertake a systematic review of the true impact of animal experiments. We must reconsider our reliance on these archaic procedures and champion the funding and development of humane and human-relevant technology. This is where the future of science and human health clearly lies.

What You Can Do for Animals Used in Experiments

With your help, we’re moving closer to a world in which all animals are regarded as individuals, not laboratory tools, and a time when we’ll look back on tests on living, breathing beings as part of a painful, dark past.

Please take 30 seconds to fire off e-mails and add your name to petitions and open letters to help animals suffering in laboratories:

Take Action

PETA US