Germany is the country in the EU where the most animals were recently used for scientific purposes. This is according to a report1 recently published by the EU Commission for 2019. The German Animal Welfare Federation criticizes the fact that Germany is doing too little to reduce the number of animals used in experiments and to replace animal experiments with methods that do not cause suffering.
“The statistics prove the shocking truth in black and white: although those responsible in Germany repeatedly emphasize that they are already doing enough to reduce animal testing, our country has managed to catapult itself to the top of the list when it comes to the cruel use of animals,” comments Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Federation. “The German government must finally take the EU target for reducing animal testing seriously. We have been calling for an overall strategy for a phase-out for years, and concrete steps must be formulated to achieve this.” Until such a complete phase-out is achieved, the Animal Welfare Federation is calling for a massive expansion of funding for animal-free alternative methods and an immediate ban on at least severely stressful animal experiments and experiments on non-human primates.
The total figures listed in the statistics for the EU Member States and Norway remain at a high level: 10,608,764 animals were used for scientific purposes, 1,855,795 of which were used in Germany alone. This puts Germany in first place in terms of animal consumption for the first time - ahead of France with 1,776,567 animals and the United Kingdom, still an EU member state in 2019, with 1,752,132 animals. Mice (5,515,089) and fish (2,574,857) were used most frequently. However, primates (10,203), dogs (20,641) and cats (3,708) also suffered and died in experiments in the EU and Norway. Almost one million animals suffered the highest level of pain, suffering, distress and harm.
EUROPEAN CITIZENS' INITIATIVE AGAINST ANIMAL SUFFERING IN LABORATORIES
In order to end the suffering of animals in laboratories across Europe, the German Animal Welfare Federation supports the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) “Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics - For a Europe without animal testing”. Together with other animal welfare organizations, the association is calling for compliance with and strengthening of the ban on animal testing in cosmetics, which is currently being undermined by the EU itself, a redesign of EU chemicals legislation without animal testing and the development of a concrete plan to phase out animal testing. EU citizens who want to call for these legislative changes can sign the ECI online until August 31: www.europa-ohne-tierversuche.de
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