11/24/14 One Step Closer Towards the End of Cruel Testings!
Animal Friends welcome an important move made by the European Union
- In spite animal testing alternatives, tens of thousands of rabbits still suffer for chemical tests
Animal Friends, a member association of the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE), welcomes an important move made by the European Commission that would remove the specific requirement of using live rabbits for skin and eye irritation tests (the so called "Draize test") from the EU chemical legislation, REACH.
These tests involve rubbing substances onto the shaved skin of rabbits or dripping substances into their eyes. The animals can experience bleeding, ulcerations, swelling, even burning and blindness. The wounds are terrible, and the animals are not provided with any pain relievers.
Since 2009, alternatives to animal testing have been permitted, however the legal text of REACH has remained unchanged. It is estimated that in the five years since the rabbit test alternatives were approved, in total, 14,000 rabbits have been used in skin irritation tests with another 10,500 rabbits used in eye irritation tests across Europe.
The ECEAE has been urging the European Commission to update REACH since 2011. Last week, the Commission finally submitted a proposal to Member States. By deleting the legal requirement for testing on rabbits, it will now be clear to chemical companies that they must no longer conduct tests on rabbits to satisfy their chemical testing obligations under REACH. This move will spare many animal lives.
Even though this is an enormous step forward, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that the legal requirement to conduct the pointless and ethically wrong animal tests is in fact deleted. This is why Animal Friends will host an info stall at Trg bana Jelacica in Zagreb on Saturday, Nov 29, 2014 from 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. At the stall, Animal Friends will hand out the White List of companies that do not test on animals and also invite citizens to sign the petiton to ban boxtox testing on animals.
