A vote to STOP VIVISECTION

• The European Citizens Initiative (ECI) is an instrument of participative democracy for European citizens. Provided that a minimum of one million signatures are obtained, the EU will be legally obliged to have citizens take part in the decision making process.

• 1.340.000 EU citizens signed the “STOP VIVISECTION” ECI, calling for a total ban on animal experimentation in favour of research methods that are scientifically relevant and reliable, based on the wishes of EU citizens.

• Animal experimentation is founded on the scientifically invalid assumption that tests on animals can predict human response. It therefore represents an unreliable method of protecting human health and the environment, which also directly impacts on human health.

• Animal experimentation is also a cruel practice, responsible for causing suffering to tens of millions of animals every year throughout Europe, and contravenes art. 13 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union, according to which animals are sentient beings and therefore deserve our protection.

• After the forthcoming elections, the European Parliament and the Commission will be required to schedule a public meeting to consider the proposals and the arguments put forward by STOP VIVISECTION. Following this, the European Commission will be required to provide an official response, setting out the steps that will be taken in response to the wishes expressed by one million of its citizens.

• The composition of the newly elected European Parliament and Commission will be crucial in determining the outcome of STOP VIVISECTION as well as in determining future scientific research, free from the shackles of animal experimentation. We, the European citizens, call upon these European institutions to clearly establish a rapport with their electorate, concerning issues so relevant to public health and animal welfare.

• In the United States, a radical new approach has taken place in the fields of biomedical research and toxicology, based on the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences, in which animal experimentation is replaced by alternative technologies that are relevant to humans. Significant funding has already been allocated to this revolutionary program over the past 7 years (see ToxCast 21). 

• In Europe, we have nothing like this. Directive 2010/63/UE continues to encourage and support the use of unreliable animal models, instead of making the use of non animal test methods (including those already validated) a legal requirement. Regarding the REACH regulation, adopted in 2007 to evaluate the toxicity of 30.000 chemical substances that potentially threaten public health and the environment, it is clear that there are major failings: although REACH makes provision to use non animal test methods whenever possible, this rarely happens, either because of inertia or incompetence. The massive and almost exclusive use of animal tests in REACH represents a dangerous and costly fraud.

For these reasons, we call upon all EU parliamentary candidates to declare their support for STOP VIVISECTION to help to put an end to animal experimentation in Europe.

To sign up, please send an email to: [email protected], indicating your surname, first name, country, constituency and political party (candidacy list).

The names of all candidate signatories will be published on the official website page www.stopvivisection.eu. They will also be distributed via the media and other networks. This will provide a clear indication of voting for the many citizens willing to stop the damage caused by animal experimentation, and by the obstacle it poses to scientific progress and to ethics as well.