Animal testing laws to be beefed up
Posted, May 05, 2009 @ 13:00
Conservative MEP drafts proposals to make animal testing obsolete -- The European Parliament has today overwhelmingly backed tougher laws on animal testing that were drafted by Conservative MEP Neil Parish.
The new legislation aims to create a framework in which animal testing for scientific ends can become obsolete by encouraging the development of better and cheaper methods. It will improve animal welfare without jeopardising indispensable medial experiments
The new directive updates legislation from 1986. It promotes the '3Rs' principles of replacement, refinement and reduction. By encouraging the development of alternatives, Mr Parish believes the directive sets the framework to allow the EU to move towards the end goal of a total abolition of animal experimentation .
However the report itself stops short of an outright ban on all animal experimentation for medical research, which Mr Parish says would be irresponsible and detrimental to human health at the current time. However, the Parliament did support Mr Parish's proposal for regular thematic reviews into primate tests to ensure that those tests which are not absolutely essential for medical research are phased out.