After pressure and complaints from PETA, a sleep fragmentation experiment that University of Massachusetts–Amherst experimenter Agnès Lacreuse had moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Wisconsin National Primate Research Center ended. UW-Madison had received approval to subject 32 marmosets to 24 nights, over two months, of loud, blaring noises to wake them repeatedly. Instead, six marmoset … Read more »
In a major turning point in how the government funds scientific research, one of the biggest funders of sepsis experiments on mice announced at a recent conference that it would stop funding the most common types of these experiments on animals and instead shift resources toward superior, human-relevant methods. The move by the National Institute … Read more »
Michele Basso was removed as director of the Washington National Primate Research Center just two months after we provided the University of Washington Board of Regents with evidence of her failings and called for her dismissal. As the face of the primate center, Basso embodied the inhumanity, arrogance, and sheer incompetence of the institution. She … Read more »
In a rare move, the U.S. Department of Agriculture levied a $1,000 penalty against Hainan Airlines after confirming our complaint that the company had violated the federal Animal Welfare Act in August 2022 by flying 720 monkeys more than 8,000 miles from Cambodia to Chicago—without being registered with the agency as required. We’ve confirmed that … Read more »
A paper coauthored by PETA Science Consortium International e.V. and published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology shows how differences in the respiratory tracts of humans and rats make tests on rats an unreliable predictor of what happens when humans inhale a substance—and why non-animal tests should be used instead. The paper will be referenced around … Read more »
PETA’s Science Advancement & Outreach division, in collaboration with a multi-organizational group of researchers and advocates, has won the Lush Prize, the largest award offered within the animal free–research community, in Major Science Collaboration. The coveted biannual prize is internationally competitive and recognizes the most promising collaborations that are working to develop and promote alternatives … Read more »
PETA’s shareholder resolution submitted to Charles River Laboratories garnered a whopping 24% of shareholder votes. The resolution calls for the multibillion-dollar international animal importer and experimenter to reveal how it will ensure that all the monkeys it imports weren’t caught in the wild and trafficked as captive-bred—for which the company is under federal investigation.
PETA regulatory scientists attended the year’s most important meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, where the 38 member countries vote on tests that companies will use to meet international regulatory testing requirements. Each year, PETA regulatory scientists are integral in reviewing and commenting on these tests, including several new and updated non-animal … Read more »
It’s now illegal to conduct new forced swim tests on animals in New South Wales, Australia. PETA has long protested against the cruel and flawed forced swim test and has been working with local activist groups to end the use of this experiment in Australia.
At the annual Society of Toxicology meeting, the world’s largest toxicology event of the year, drawing more than 5,000 attendees, PETA regulatory scientists chaired sessions, presented posters, and provided educational courses on non-animal methods for testing chemicals. They also participated in mentorship events to help early-career researchers advance their careers in non-animal toxicology testing.
The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) finalized a regulation that removes animal testing as an option for companies wanting to make human iron health claims for marketing their food and beverage products. The testing included feeding baby rats an iron-deficient diet to induce anemia and then feeding them a test food, after which their … Read more »
PETA Science Consortium International e.V. awarded Dr. Jens Kurreck, a professor of applied biochemistry at Technische Universität Berlin, funding to help him create a laboratory that introduces students to the practice of using cells that aren’t reliant on animal-derived ingredients. A scientist in Belgium also received the Science Consortium’s Early-Career Scientist Award for her work … Read more »
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has finally listened to the calls of PETA scientists and committed to promoting non-animal research, including opening up funding and training opportunities for animal-free science. This welcome, long-overdue development also follows a powerful bipartisan letter to NIH from members of Congress—led by Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Ted Lieu … Read more »
The Colombian environmental agency Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca fined experimenters Sócrates Herrera and Myriam Arévalo—the owners of the Colombian organizations at the center of PETA’s 18-month investigation—more than $281,000 after it found them responsible for lacking the required permits to capture, confine, and experiment on monkeys. The agency’s ruling also established that … Read more »
PETA Science Consortium International e.V. coauthored a paper with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other collaborators on methods that can replace the use of live rabbits to test the effects of chemicals on human eyes. Building on this work, the EPA office that regulates industrial chemicals released a document encouraging companies to employ … Read more »
