Time to End Tests on Animals: New Ads Put Pressure on Dutch Politicians

In time for the general elections in the Netherlands, a new digital ad campaign from PETA Netherlands is urging the next parliament to phase out tests on animals and become a world leader in animal-free innovation by 2025.

It’s been five years since the Netherlands first made its anti-vivisection pledge, yet approximately the same number of animals as before are still enduring the agony of being gassed, force-fed, drugged, and killed in worthless experiments.

Since 2016, the number of procedures performed on animals in Dutch laboratories has stagnated at approximately half a million per year. The group tasked with accelerating animal-free innovation has stripped its mission statement of its 2025 timeline. You can learn more about the original goal and why it wasn’t achieved here.

PETA Netherlands asked Dutch election candidates to support a formal pledge promising to renew the government’s commitment to ending animal experiments; develop a clear strategy with timelines to phase out animal testing in biomedical research, education, and training; and redirect funding towards animal-free research. Around 1,700 supporters sent a total of approximately 70,000 e-mails to candidates to ask them to take the pledge. As a result, three parties and a candidate from a fourth party did so.