From the point of view of the German Animal Welfare Federation, NDR research that became public today proves that illegal animal experiments in German laboratories are not isolated cases, but that the fault lies in the system. As part of its "More animal protection now!" campaign, the German Animal Welfare Federation is therefore calling for the Animal Welfare Act to be amended and is calling on the German government to present a strategy for phasing out animal experiments.
"Millions of animals suffer and die in animal experiments every year - with dubious results. The current legal regulations in Germany prevent the authorities from being able to carry out a truly independent assessment of whether a planned animal experiment is really essential and ethically justifiable. Something urgently needs to change here," comments Tilo Weber, expert on alternative methods to animal testing at the German Animal Welfare Federation. In the view of the German Animal Welfare Federation, animal experiments that cause serious harm should be banned without exception. So far, however, Germany has not even made use of the possibility of limiting the most severe stress for laboratory animals. Germany is also not making use of the option to ban experiments on great apes immediately. "For non-human primates, our closest relatives, we need a ban on animal testing in the Animal Welfare Act," Weber demands.
In order to ensure that animal experiments classified as "unavoidable" and "ethically justifiable" by the approval authority are not carried out differently than requested and that all legal requirements are met, the German Animal Welfare Federation believes that more inspections are needed - especially unannounced ones. This would also require the creation of personnel capacities in the authorities. In order to phase out animal testing in the long term, the German Animal Welfare Federation has long been calling for an exit strategy and a massive expansion of funding for animal-free methods. In the coalition agreement, the current German government promised to at least present a reduction strategy and to increase research into alternatives. So far, however, hardly anything has been done in this regard, even though at least initial funding of one million euros has been included in the federal budget for 2024. The German Animal Welfare Federation criticizes that the issue of animal testing is currently playing no role in the upcoming revision of the Animal Welfare Act.
BACKGROUND:
The current NDR documentary "Animal experiments on dogs - suffering in the laboratory" reveals that numerous illegal animal experiments have taken place in laboratories across Germany. In the past two years, animal experiments were carried out in nine federal states that were not authorized. In Lower Saxony alone, 24 cases were discovered during inspections between May 2022 and July 2023 in which experiments were carried out without approval or in deviation from the approved procedure. In North Rhine-Westphalia, there were 17 such cases in 2022. Illegal animal experiments also took place in Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, among others. In addition to mice and rats, monkeys and rabbits were also affected. For example, more animals were used for the experiments than had been approved. There were deviations from the experimental procedure, more animals were killed as "surplus" than permitted or anaesthetic procedures were used for which no approval had been obtained. Experimental animals were kept in rooms and cages that were too small and not approved for this purpose. Inadequate monitoring of the animals' condition was also found.
More about the research at:
www.tagesschau.de/investigativ/ndr/tierversuche-tierschutz-deutschland-tierquaelerei-labor-100.html
Note to editors: With the current campaign "Now more animal protection!", the German Animal Welfare Federation is reminding the current federal government of its promises from the coalition agreement. On the campaign website www.jetzt-mehr-tierschutz.de, the federation also points out what needs to change in German animal welfare legislation, including the issue of animal testing: www.jetzt-mehr-tierschutz.de/tierschutzgesetz
