REACH: 1 Million Dead Animals Mark the 10th Anniversary of EU Test Programme
With the blood on its hands of 1 million animals used in chemical tests, Europe can no longer claim to be a world leader in animal welfare.
Ten years ago, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) began administering the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals regulation (REACH), the world’s largest chemical-testing programme of its kind. Since then, PETA has intervened to end duplicative testing, filed complaints with the European Ombudsman, and lobbied ECHA, whenever possible, to enforce the principle that tests on animals must be conducted only as a last resort, as required by law. Nevertheless, we now estimate from a new report that approximately 1 million animals have been killed under REACH – deaths that were likely painful and prolonged.
Under REACH, experiments on animals should only be done as a last resort, but ECHA has revealed that scores of mice, rabbits, and guinea pigs have been subjected to painful skin and eye irritation and skin allergy tests, despite the existence of effective and reliable non-animal methods. In these cruel and unreliable tests, massive doses of chemicals are dripped into animals’ sensitive eyes or rubbed onto their shaved skin. In other tests, tens of thousands of animals have been impregnated and poisoned only for their newborn babies to be killed and dissected.
You Can Help End This Cruelty
The European Commission’s upcoming evaluation of REACH is due by October 2017. Now is the time to take action and demand that Europe actually lead the world in progressive and innovative science by ending these gruesome experiments and accepting cutting-edge research methods that don’t harm animals. Please sign PETA’s open letter demanding that the European Commission end animal experiments and do more to promote non-animal methods for REACH.
