PETA’s Research Modernisation Deal: A Strategy to End Experiments on Animals

The current research system is broken. 

• Extensive research documents the failure in translating results from animals into treatments for humans in numerous disease areas, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, neurodegenerative disease, sepsis, and stroke.
• The majority of “highly promising” basic science discoveries are based on animal studies, but fewer than 10% of these enter clinical use within 20 years.
• The failure to reproduce preclinical research equates to more than £20 billion per year spent on misleading experimentation and unacceptable delays in delivering effective treatments.

We need a better way – and PETA scientists have come up with it: The Research Modernisation Deal.

What's The Research Modernisation Deal About?

PETA‘s Research Modernisation Deal outlines a strategy for replacing the use of animals in experiments with human-relevant methods.

It includes the following steps:

1. Immediately eliminate animal use in areas in which animals have already been shown to be poor and unreliable predictors for humans and their use has impeded progress.
2. Conduct critical scientific reviews to identify the areas in which the use of animals has failed to advance human health and should therefore be ended.
3. Implement transparent, robust prospective and retrospective evaluations for all projects using animals and allow for a public commenting period.
4. Work with organisations and agencies globally to harmonise and promote international acceptance of non-animal testing methods for regulatory testing requirements.
5. Increase funds for non-animal studies and decrease funds for animal studies.
6. Educate and train researchers and regulators on the benefits of and how to use non-animal testing approaches.

PETA opposes all experiments on animals and campaigns for an immediate end to all animal use. Government, regulatory, and scientific authorities must acknowledge the failure of animal studies and immediately end all animal use in disease research areas in which it is known that it does not produce results that help humans. To do otherwise is unethical, impedes good science, wastes resources, and harms animals.

Support the Research Modernisation Deal for the UK

Help end cruel and wasteful experiments on animals.

Now is the time for the UK to reaffirm its role as the world leader in biomedical research and regulatory testing, shift away from the failed animal experimentation paradigm, and embrace the change that will bring desperately needed treatments, cures, and vaccines.

Please sign our petition urging the government to establish a clear policy mandating an end to animal experimentation and to provide a clear strategy and timeline for achieving this goal.

Latest Campaign News

• PETA Protests Animal Testing Outside Parliament

PETA stood in solidarity with compassionate individuals outside Parliament in the bustling streets of Westminster. We gathered with other animal protection groups ahead of a crucial debate on testing on animals in the UK. Despite modern advancements, distressed beagles, bunnies, and other animals continue to endure the harrowing cruelty of being used as laboratory equipment. They may be subjected to invasive procedures, force-fed chemicals, and killed.

• Animal Groups Unite in Call for Manifesto Pledges to Phase Out All Experiments on Animals

Leading animal groups rushed a joint letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other political party leaders calling on them to develop a national plan to rethink scientific research. As part of their manifesto commitments, all political parties need to commit to developing a roadmap that will phase out all experiments on animals and support the adoption of superior, animal-free technology. Only then can the UK achieve its goal of becoming a world leader in science.

• UK Government Recommended to Take Urgent Action

The Animals in Science Committee, an advisory body to the Home Office, recommended that the UK government take “urgent” action to implement a strategy to “accelerate the development and uptake” of non-animal methods, recognising the “scientific and economic opportunities associated with these innovations”. Following this, PETA scientists shared the Research Modernisation Deal with the committee and government ministers to highlight how it can do exactly that – and more.

• Manifesto Commitments – MPs Urged to Support Bans on Animal Testing

As political parties write their manifestos for the next UK general election, PETA is calling on its supporters to contact their MPs and urge them to back a commitment to ending experiments on animals. PETA scientists wrote to those responsible for drafting manifestos for the various political parties, including party leaders and the prime minister, and provided each official with a copy of the Research Modernisation Deal.

• PETA Calls For Change at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference

PETA scientists attended the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference 2023 to seek the support of members of Parliament and other policymakers. In addition to disseminating copies of the Research Modernisation Deal, we urged officials to include a commitment to ending experiments on animals in the party manifesto.

• International Conference Features PETA’s RMD

Scientists from PETA entities participated in the 12th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences, the premier conference on non-animal research and testing methods. They chaired eight sessions, delivered nine oral and six poster presentations about their life-saving work to end experiments on animals, and presented on the Research Modernisation Deal.

• Learn How PETA’s RMD Can Stop All Chemicals Testing on Animals

PETA scientists participated in the Lush Prize Conference, where they presented on how the Research Modernisation Deal could be used to end all chemicals testing on animals in the UK. You can watch a recording of the event here.