Household product test ban will do little to help animals

The ban 'is essentially mere window dressing'

20.07.11

The government's ban on testing household products on animals, which was announced on Monday, 18 July, will do very little to help laboratory animals.

A second announcement on how the government's pledge 'to work to reduce the use of animals in scientific research' will be fulfilled is also a cop-out.
 

Ban 'will have very little impact'

The government is changing the way that household product testing is licensed, effectively banning the use of animals for this purpose.

We have always been opposed to animal testing for inessential substances such as cosmetics and toiletries, household products and garden chemicals.

There is absolutely no justification for causing animal suffering in order to develop and test products used for such trivial purposes.

RSPCA senior scientist Barney Reed said:

Banning the use of animals to test household products may sound good, but out of 3.6 million animals used in experiments in the UK last year, just 24 were used for this purpose, and none were used the year before.

In reality this will have very little impact and is essentially mere window dressing.

This move will impress no-one unless it is followed by more substantial progress in other areas of safety testing where tens of thousands of animals continue to suffer.

 

'People...will be feeling badly let down'

The government also announced that the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) will play the lead role in fulfilling its pledge to work to reduce the numbers of animals used in scientific research.

Barney explained:

The NC3Rs was established by the previous government and has done some good work.

However, what's been announced doesn't appear to be anything particularly new.

We think it's a total cop-out for the present government to shift the responsibility for meeting its own promise onto a single organisation with limited resources.

Reducing the use and suffering of animals is the responsibility of everyone who uses animals or creates a demand for their use.

We were expecting something far more wide-ranging and creative. People have waited more than a year for this announcement - they will be feeling badly let down.

A step back for lab animals 

These announcements come at a time when there are significant concerns that the government will choose to water down many areas of the current UK law regulating animal experiments to the minimum required in a new European Directive.

Barney added:

The statements made yesterday will sound even more hollow and insignificant if the government now takes steps to weaken controls on animal experiments in the UK.

 

 

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