Victory! Scientists With PETA US and EPA Save Hundreds of Birds
Hundreds of birds will be spared the misery of being used in pesticide tests, thanks to a review conducted by the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd. and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The peer-reviewed paper co-authored by the two organisations reviewed 20 years of data from a test for pesticides in which birds are fed pesticide-laced food for days and then monitored for symptoms, including vomiting, weight loss, and lethargy, before being killed. The authors found that there were no cases in which this test identified a risk that was not identified in other required tests. Therefore, the EPA can confidently protect the environment without poisoning birds in this cruel test.
The EPA has used the paper‘s findings to draft a policy that will allow companies to avoid the test, sparing the lives of hundreds of mallards and bobwhite quails each year, along with saving time and taxpayer money – resources that can be better spent advancing non-animal methods that can more quickly and reliably predict the effects of chemicals on humans and the environment.
This announcement comes on the heels of last week‘s groundbreaking news that the EPA plans to stop funding and requesting tests on mammals by 2035. PETA US first put animal rights on the EPA‘s agenda 20 years ago, and while we wish animal tests would stop now – or had never started – this is the first time a US regulatory agency has made such a commitment.
In fact, the EPA administrator announced this week that this collaborative project to save birds is the “first action after my recent directive to aggressively reduce animal testing throughout the Agency“.
What You Can Do
PETA scientists are also working hard to end cruel experiments in the EU, and you can help move us one step further towards this goal by urging the European Commission and the European Chemicals Agency never to allow animal testing for cosmetics ingredients.
Please also make a make a donation today to help end animal testing:
