Cruelty Free International disappointed at government’s failure to prioritise phase-out of animal testing
Animal protection NGO, Cruelty Free International, is disappointed at the government’s failure to include its manifesto pledge to plan the phase-out of animal testing in the King’s Speech.
The manifesto promised1 to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing” but this commitment has been omitted from its initial legislative programme, which was announced at the State Opening of Parliament this morning – despite strong public support.
In 2021, Cruelty Free International’s survey2 found that 66% of people want a government-led plan to phase-out animal experiments with a target date for ending tests in the UK.
Cruelty Free International remains ready to assist the government with the development of a roadmap with clear targets, milestones and actions, led by a minister dedicated to the co-ordination of plans across all departments.
The organisation is also campaigning for the current partial ban on animal testing for cosmetics products and ingredients to be restored to its full scope and put into law. They also call for homes to be made safer through a modernisation of the system which tests the chemicals that go into everyday products, such as food, clothes, household cleaning, furniture, electronic goods, paints and dyes, and the removal of animals from that system.
Home Office statistics3 show that there were over 2.76 million uses of animals in laboratories in Great Britain in 2022. Ten per cent of those are tests required by regulators to assess the safety or effectiveness of chemicals, medicines and other products.
Cruelty Free International Head of Public Affairs – UK & EU, Dylan Underhill, said: “We are hugely disappointed that the government left out a plan to phase-out animal testing from the King’s Speech – and that they have failed to reflect both the views of the public and the strength of feeling that there is on this issue. Animal testing is simply not good science yet inexplicably continues as the default method for testing the safety of products. We know that, as a country, we can do so much better in our protection of the millions of animals that suffer and die in laboratories every year.
“Animal testing touches our lives in many ways that most of us don’t appreciate, from cosmetics and household products to clothes, furniture, plastics, electronic and white goods, paints, dyes, and food – all these things can be associated with animal testing on their way to our homes. Yet non-animal testing methods, in many cases, have already proven themselves to be faster, cheaper and more accurate than animal testing.
“We needed the government to take bold steps forward – without this, we will be condemned to a never-ending cycle of small reductions in animal testing numbers, rather than the transformative step forward which is needed to meet the aspirations of the public.”
1. https://labour.org.uk/change/make-britain-a-clean-energy-superpower/#animal-welfare
2. https://crueltyfreeinternational.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/Polling%20Briefing%20-%20Phase%20Out%20Plan.pdf
3. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn02720/
