Adam Peyman/HSIAfrican elephant ivory products for sale in Tokyo, Japan
GENEVA—The Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) today confirmed its commitment to closure of domestic ivory markets agreeing by consensus to focus scrutiny on remaining legal markets like Japan and the EU. The discussions focused attention on markets that remain open with obvious concern regarding their contribution to illegal trade and poaching. In a positive step forward, Israel noted its recent announcement on closure of its domestic markets in elephant and mammoth ivory, and Australia announced its intent to close its market. The European Union stated that they will tighten regulations.
The previous meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2016 called on countries to close domestic ivory markets that are “contributing to poaching or illegal trade.” Some countries, notably Japan and the EU, have claimed that their markets were not known to be contributing to elephant poaching or illegal trade and have held out on taking action. Under today’s agreement, countries whose ivory markets remain open will now be requested to report on the measures they are taking to ensure that their domestic ivory markets are not contributing to poaching or illegal trade. Japan – which has a significant domestic ivory market and has been implicated in ivory trafficking to China – will be bound by this agreed decision, if affirmed by plenary next week.
A number of Parties, including several African elephant range States such as Gabon, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Nigeria Angola and Liberia, reiterated that all legal domestic ivory markets create opportunities to launder illegal ivory contributing to poaching and illegal trade.
Iris Ho, Humane Society International’s senior wildlife specialist says: “It is a welcome reassurance that the CITES Parties recognize the necessity of and urgency for any remaining significant ivory markets, such as Japan and the European Union, to shut down their ivory trade. No country should be off the hook when a growing number of countries including China, the United States, Singapore and the United Kingdom have adopted measures to restrict or ban their domestic ivory trade. We call on Japan to heed the recommendation of the CoP and close its domestic or intra-EU commercial ivory trade as soon as possible.”
Humane Society International warmly congratulates the governments of Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria and the Syrian Arab Republic for championing this proposal, as well as all 32 countries African Elephant Coalition for advocating for closure of domestic ivory markets worldwide. The agreement reached today will now go forward to the plenary of the conference for ratification on 27/28th August.
ENDS
Media contacts:
At CITES: Brianna Grant, bgrant@hsi.org, +1-202-360-3532 (cell/WhatsApp)
United States: Nancy Hwa, 202-596-0808 (cell), nhwa@hsi.org
Humane Society International / Global
Anagramm/iStock.com
This release has been corrected.
GENEVA—The first vote at the 18th meeting of the CITES Conference of the Parties has delivered a historic win for African elephants to end the cruel practice of removing live elephants from the wild for export to captive facilities. CITES is the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Iris Ho, senior wildlife specialist for wildlife programs and policy for Humane Society International, said: “This decision will save countless elephants from being ripped away from their families in the wild and forced to spend their lifetimes imprisoned in substandard conditions at zoos. HSI applauds this decision and calls on all Parties to affirm this decision at the plenary session next week.”
CITES Parties voted to limit trade in live wild African elephants to ‘in situ’ conservation in their natural habitats, which will end the trade in live wild elephants to captivity in zoos and entertainment venues, effectively ruling them unacceptable and inappropriate destinations. (CoP18 Document 44.2)
Forty-six countries voted in favour, 18 voted against and 19 countries abstained. This achieved the 2/3 majority for the proposal to pass in committee.
Audrey Delsink, director of wildlife for Humane Society International/Africa and an elephant biologist, said, “The export of live wild elephants serves no credible conservation purpose and is opposed by numerous elephant biologists. Elephants are highly intelligent, social animals with strong family bonds. The capture of baby elephants is horribly cruel and traumatic to both the mothers, their calves and their herds that are left behind. Calves suffer psychological and physical harm when taken from their mothers. Zoos and other captive facilities force these calves to live in an unnatural, unhealthy environment that does not meet their complex needs.”
The decision applies to the elephants in Botswana and Zimbabwe* with elephant populations on Appendix II of CITES, which has an annotation that permits this trade to “appropriate and acceptable destinations.”
Zimbabwe has captured and exported more than 100 baby elephants to Chinese zoos since 2012. These calves, severely traumatized by being torn from their mothers, were subsequently abused through violent handling that included being kicked and beaten, and several have consequently died.
HSI warmly congratulates Burkina Faso, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan and Syria for putting forward this important proposal, which was backed by the 32 member countries of the African Elephant Coalition.
END
Media contacts:
At CITES: Brianna Grant, bgrant@hsi.org, +1 518-487-0975 (cell and WhatsApp)
United States: Nancy Hwa, 202-596-0808 (cell), nhwa@hsi.org
*An earlier version of this news release erroneously stated that the proposal affects elephants in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The proposal applies only to Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Humane Society International / Europe
Marcos Calvo Mesa/istock
Brussels – Bullfighting has returned to the Balearic Islands in Spain. The cruel spectacle, held at Mallorca’s Coliseo Balear on Friday 9th August, came in the wake of a Spanish Constitutional Court ruling that struck down legislative measures adopted by the autonomous community’s Parliament in July 2017.
Rather than explicitly banning bullfighting, the proposed amendments to the existing Balearic Islands’ Animal Protection Law introduced regulatory measures such as banning the use of sharp implements, limiting bulls to just 10 minutes in the ring and banning bull slaughter. Lawmakers adopted this strategy, which would make it more or less impossible to hold bullfights, after the 2010 Catalan bullfighting ban was annulled by a Spanish Constitutional Court ruling, which stipulated that regions do not have the autonomous power to ban bullfighting.
Humane Society International/Europe’s executive director, Ruud Tombrock, issued the following statement condemning the resumption of bullfighting in Mallorca:
“It is reprehensible that this much-disdained bloodsport is making a return to Mallorca after a two-year absence. The decision to revive the torment of bulls for public entertainment flies in the face of public opinion. It is an insult to both the Parliament of the Balearic Islands and the majority of this autonomous community’s population who strongly oppose bullfighting and did their utmost to end this anachronism. Spaniards are increasingly turning their backs on bullfighting, but – despite diminishing audiences and a decreasing number of bullfights being held – a powerful political elite doggedly continues to shore up this bloodsport by casting it as part of the country’s intangible cultural heritage.”
Facts
An opinion poll of Spanish citizens commissioned by HSI in 2013 showed that only 29% of Spain’s population support bullfighting (just 13% support it strongly). A total of 76% oppose the use of public funds to support the bullfighting industry.
In February 2016, the Balearic Islands Parliament voted in favour of a proposal to ban bullfighting and bull fiestas, which would have revised the Balearic Islands’ Animal Protection Law 1/1992 and made the Balearics the third Spanish autonomous community to ban bullfighting, after the Canary Islands and Catalonia. However, the bill came to a standstill in October 2016 when the Spanish Constitutional Court overturned Catalonia’s 2010 bullfighting ban and declared that the regions do not have the autonomous power to prohibit bullfighting.
In July 2017, Balearic Islands Parliament voted for legislative measures that included restrictions on the transport, origin, age and weight of bulls; a requirement for veterinary inspections; a ban on the use of sharp implements; a limit of 10 minutes of bulls ‘performing’ in the ring; a ban on the slaughter of bulls or their return to their ranch of origin afterwards; a ban on the use of horses at bullfighting events, and a ban on alcohol consumption at the events.
HSI supported the Mallorca Without Blood initiative, led by AnimaNaturalis and CAS International, which aimed to end bullfighting in the Balearic Islands, and was present at the Balearic Islands Parliament vote in July 2017.
Humane Society International / Brazil
Bryan Mitchell/AP Images for the HSUS Teddy, an 18-month-old beagle, has fun at his new home Wednesday, May 22, 2019, in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Teddy is a survivor from an animal testing facility in Michigan and was adopted by Greta Guest and David Rubello in April of this year.
BRASILIA—Humane Society International has welcomed sweeping animal welfare reforms to regulations governing the testing of agricultural pesticides in Brazil, including abolition of a controversial year-long poisoning test in dogs, recognition of modern animal testing alternatives, and creation of a process by which companies can request that scientifically unnecessary animal test requirements be waived. These and other reforms were published on 29 July by Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA) in RDC n. 294, replacing a nearly 30-year-old testing ordinance from 1992.
Publication of the new regulation has been delayed for years, so the test has remained an official requirement until now, despite HSI’s success in negotiating for the removal of the one-year dog test from a 2015 draft. A 2018 undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States found more than 30 beagles in a U.S. laboratory being used to test a pesticide for sale in Brazil, which the company defended on the grounds that the test is still officially “on the books.” Following intervention by HSI, ANVISA agreed to grant a waiver for the pesticide, and the company agreed to stop the test and release the surviving dogs – all of whom have now been adopted into loving homes.
Antoniana Ottoni, government relations manager for HSI in Brazil, said: “Today we celebrate the abolition of cruel year-long dog poisoning tests for pesticides in Brazil and worldwide. This and other changes to Brazilian regulations are a life-saving victory for animals, yet it’s disgraceful that it’s taken authorities 20 years to take action after the uselessness of the dog test was recognized by scientists. This underscores the need for increased dialogue and cooperation with authorities, industry and NGOs like HSI to ensure that continued progress doesn’t take another 20 years.”
HSI began negotiations with ANVISA around pesticide reform in Brazil in 2013, hosting a regulatory science workshop, a webinar and high-level meetings with agency scientists and executive leadership. In response to lengthy delays in publishing the new regulation, HSI launched in 2017 the campaign #AnvisaPoupeVidas, collecting over 160,000 signatures in a matter of weeks, calling for swift action by ANVISA.
Facts:
Pesticides are among the most heavily animal-tested substances in existence. For a registration of a single new pesticide “active ingredient” (the poisonous component that makes it effective), it is used on as many as 10,000 rodents, fish, birds, rabbits and dogs in dozens of separate chemical-poisoning tests. Many of these tests are overtly redundant, repeating the same test procedure using two or more different animal species or routes of exposure (oral, inhalation, skin, etc.), the scientific value of which has come under intense scrutiny.
The one-year dog toxicity test consists of force-feeding groups of beagle dogs a pesticide chemical every day for an entire year, after which the animals are killed and dissected to examine the chemical’s effects on their internal organs. Based on sound scientific evidence that this long-term poisoning test is completely unnecessary for pesticides safety assessment, every other country that had previously required the test has dropped it.
Media contact: Antoniana Ottoni, aottoni@hsi.org, +5561981403636
Dulcé Café and Wiesenhof embrace global plant-based food trend and join HSI’s Green Monday South Africa movement
Humane Society International / Africa
Shawn Driman
CAPE TOWN – Dulcé Café and Wiesenhof have teamed up with Humane Society International/Africa to join the global movement towards more plant-based, sustainable food by launching three new delicious meat- and dairy-free dishes for their winter 2019 menus. The restaurant chains’ decision to introduce more plant-based food offerings was inspired by HSI/Africa’s Green Monday SA meat-reduction initiative, encouraging South Africans to eat plant-based at least one day every week to improve their health, reduce their carbon footprint, and make a positive difference to the lives of farm animals.
According to the International Food Information Council Foundation’s 2019 Food and Health Survey, one quarter of survey participants said that they eat more plant-based protein than they did 12 months ago. In another poll, which questioned 850 chefs, catering managers, business owners, and kitchen staff, vegan food was rated a top restaurant trend in 2019, as 25 percent of diners are choosing vegan and vegetarian options.
Leozette Roode, media and outreach manager for HSI/Africa, said: “With more South Africans increasing their plant-based food consumption, eating green is going mainstream. While most South Africans aren’t necessarily adopting a completely vegan lifestyle, they are reducing their consumption of animal products and noticing the health benefits alongside the positive environmental and animal welfare impacts. Retailers and restaurateurs have realised this change in consumer preferences, too, and are embracing the opportunity to put more meat- and dairy-free options on their menus. The launch of Dulcé Café and Wiesenhof’s plant-based menu options sets a great example, and HSI/Africa is pleased to have been part of its development, communication and implementation.”
Kobus Wiese, the former South African rugby union player and owner/founder of the Wiese Coffee Holdings Group, said, “Wiese Coffee Holdings cares for the health of our customers, our environment and Africa’s animals. We welcome the global trend toward plant-based foods and are thrilled to endorse Humane Society International/Africa’s Green Monday SA initiative. Throughout our operations we try to reduce our carbon and water footprint and the impact our restaurants have on the environment. Our plant-based options, which are offered on both Dulcé Café and Wiesenhof menus, include Arrabiata Mash Crepes smothered in a spicy napolitana sauce and topped with sautéed onions, mushrooms and cocktail tomatoes, a warming Lentil and Cauliflower Curry with savoury brown rice and a fresh, high-protein Lentil, Chickpea and Avocado salad that can be enjoyed as a shared side or a main. All three dishes are delicious, and we encourage our customers to order and eat the green options – especially on Green Mondays. Together, we can make a positive difference.”
Many benefits come from a greener diet. Numerous studies indicate that a diet rich in plant-based foods can help improve our health, and that people who eat fewer animal products have lower rates of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis and cancer. Our carbon footprint and water use are also greatly reduced on a plant-based diet, as farming animals requires significantly more water and produces a lot more greenhouse gasses than farming vegetables and grains. Finally, replacing meat, milk and eggs also benefits farm animals, millions of whom spend their entire lives in cages or crates where they are unable to exercise, engage in their natural behaviours and often even turn around because of lack of space.
The Green Monday menu options will be available at all Dulcé Café and Wiesenhof restaurants nationwide from 1 August 2019. Visit https://wcholdings.co.za to find the closest outlets. For more information on the Green Monday SA movement and programs implemented in South Africa, visit www.greenmondayza.org. For information on the benefits of a plant-based diet and for plant-based recipes to cook at home, visit www.greenmonday.co.za.
HSI/Africa: Media and Outreach Manager Leozette Roode, mobile +2771 360 1004, lroode@hsi.org
Humane Society International / Europe
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — Consumer, environmental and animal welfare organisations have come together to call on the new Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) to reject proposals that seek to prevent the producers of plant-based foods from using terms typically associated with meat or dairy, thereby banning widely-used and widely-understood terms such as ‘veggie burger’, ‘yoghurt style’ or ‘cheese substitute’.
Compassion in World Farming-EU, Eurogroup for Animals, European Environmental Bureau, European Vegetarian Union, FOUR PAWS, Humane Society International/Europe, ProVeg International, SAFE-Safe Food Advocacy Europe, The Good Food Institute Europe, and The Vegan Society signed a joint letter expressing their deep concerns regarding the proposed ban, which was included in a file forming part of the reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The organisations argue in the letter that consumers have long been accustomed to the use of such common-sense terms as ‘vegan sausage’ and ‘veggie burger’ to designate plant-based alternatives to meat, and that banning the use of those widely-understood terms would “result in confusing consumers and preventing them from making informed choices while purchasing products.”
Animal agriculture is a major greenhouse gas emitter, and experts agree that reducing global meat and dairy consumption could play a significant role in mitigating climate change. In light of considerable public support for policy action on climate change, the letter signatories also highlight that restricting the commercial speech of producers of plant-based products that are well known to have a lower environmental impact than their animal-based counterparts, would be counterproductive in achieving a greener CAP.
Finally, the letter points out that slowing down the development of plant-based alternatives would penalise the growing number of consumers looking for more sustainable food.
Alexandra Clark from Humane Society International/Europe said “During another heatwave that focuses our minds that we are in the midst of climate breakdown, it is madness that MEPs are spending valuable time on trying to limit the growth of the plant-based market by banning terms such as ‘veggie burger’ when instead they should be dedicated to making agricultural policy more sustainable and climate friendly. The European vegetarian and vegan food market has grown massively in recent years with consumers increasingly choosing to reduce or replace meat and dairy with plant-based options. Common sense terms like vegan sausage or cheese substitute have been used for years and it is absurd to suggest that banning them is in the best interest of consumers who are actively seeking out these products because they’re animal-free.”
Petitions against this proposal have now already gathered more than 80,000 signatures.
One year before the start of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, international and Japanese conservation organizations are appealing to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike to ban the sale of ivory in the city. Japan boasts the world’s largest legal domestic ivory market, and its ongoing support for an industry that fuels the poaching of an estimated 20,000 African elephants each year threatens to tarnish the reputation of Tokyo and the 2020 Games.
The Environmental Investigation Agency US, Humane Society International, WildAid, Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund and Tears of the African Elephant urge the Governor to support international efforts to conserve and protect Africa’s rapidly declining elephant population by closing the ivory market in Tokyo prior to the start of the 2020 Games. The city is home to a significant proportion of Japan’s 17,000 registered ivory manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. With an estimated 10 million tourists expected to visit Tokyo for the games, there is a high risk that many visitors, either intentionally or unknowingly, will buy and illegally export ivory souvenirs from these shops.
In May, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appealed to Governor Koike to follow New York’s lead and ban the city’s ivory trade. Thirty-seven members ofthe U.S. House of Representatives also appealed to the Government of Japan to join other nations that have committed to closing ivory markets in a letter they sent via Ambassador Shinsuke J. Sugiyama. In addition, on their own initiative, many private companies including Rakuten, AEON, Ito Yokado, Mercari, Inc., Amazon Japan and Google Shopping Japan have ceased ivory sales or have announced their intention to do so before the Games begin.
Despite evidence of ongoing illegal trade that exploits loopholes in Japan’s regulations, its government has continued to support the domestic ivory trade. This position threatens to undermine bans in other jurisdictions like China, the United States and the United Kingdom. In China, officials have been ramping up their efforts and have seized an increasing number of shipments of ivory from Japan, making it clear that Japan’s domestic market is contributing to illegal international trade. There have been more than 20 seizures of ivory from Japan so far in 2019.
Japan’s ivory trade will face increased scrutiny at the 18thmeeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), in Geneva, Switzerland next month. The 32 African nations that comprise the African Elephant Coalition are urging Japan and the European Union to close their ivory markets.
Allan Thornton, president of EIA US, said, “Japan’s hold on its domestic ivory trade has the potential to divide nations just as the world comes together for the Olympics. We strongly urge the Government of Japan to close its domestic ivory market and let the global community know it cares about Africa’s iconic elephants.”
Iris Ho, senior specialist for wildlife programs and policy for Humane Society International, said, “There is no better opportunity than the 2020 Summer Games to showcase Japan’s commitment to environmental sustainability, a key theme of the Games. We urge the Japanese government to protect one of the planet’s keystone species by shutting down its ivory market–the largest remaining in the world.”
Masayuki Sakamoto, executive director of the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund, said“Japan’s domestic ivory market is not only the largest legal market, but also the most open and poorly regulated one. Ivory hanko and wide variety of other ivory products are freely sold on the street and online. None of them can be identified as derived from ivory legally imported before the international ban. Even worse, those ivory products are being produced on daily basis. This market provides a quite useful ‘cover’ for smuggled ivory items as well as an easy place for buying ivory to be illegally exported abroad.”
Findings reveal the need for a local law in the District
Humane Society International / United States
WASHINGTON – Today the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International released findings of an undercover investigation revealing a lucrative ivory trade in the nation’s capital, where ivory dealers take advantage of the lack of local laws banning the sale of ivory. Legislation has been introduced in the Council of the District of Columbia that would prohibit sales of certain ivory products as well as those made from rhino horn within the District.
From April to July 2019, investigators found ivory products for sale at L’Enfant Gallery, Capital Antiques, Frank Milwee Antiques, Mercedes Bien Vintage and by two vendors at the Georgetown Flea Market. Most of the ivory sellers were unable to produce documentation verifying the age or origin of the ivory when asked by the investigator. Without documentation, it is impossible to know whether items were imported in violation of federal law, which prohibits imports or interstate sales of ivory from recently killed elephants. Under federal law, sellers are responsible for demonstrating through documentation that items were lawfully imported.
An investigator observed that L’Enfant Gallery displayed the most elaborate and expensive ivory pieces the investigator had seen in years of investigating ivory sales across the United States.
Among the ivory items found for sale during this investigation: a full elephant tusk, $600,000; a multi-figurine game board, $48,000; carved horse-drawn chariots, $12,000; and various figurines and jewelries, ranging from $150 to $18,000.
Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and president of Humane Society International, said, “The trade in ivory contributes to a devastating decline in elephant populations. It is distressing that ivory sales are occurring right here in my hometown of Washington, D.C., where our federal government has unequivocally condemned the international trade in ivory from recently poached elephants. The Council of the District of Columbia must act to pass legislation that will protect imperiled elephants and rhinos by removing the financial incentives to kill them and trade in their parts. Washington D.C. should no longer condone a trade that decimates Earth’s iconic species.”
Councilmember Mary M. Cheh said: “I have introduced the Elephant Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Trafficking Prohibition Act on three separate occasions. Perhaps if an earlier iteration of this legislation had passed back in 2015 when it was first introduced, the ivory market would not have moved to the District of Columbia at all. Nevertheless, we must not sit passively while the ivory market thrives in the District. Limiting the demand for ivory and horns is key to stopping the unnecessary and inhumane slaughter of these animals —and we cannot wait.”
Facts
The illegal wildlife trade is a multibillion-dollar global industry that affects millions of animals and communities around the world. Wild animals such as elephants and rhinos are killed in massive numbers and suffer from horrific cruelty. Poachers brutally kill elephants and harvest their tusks, sometimes while the animal is still alive.
The African savanna elephant population has declined by 144,000 – 30% of the population – since 2007, primarily because of poaching. More than 1,000 rhinos were poached in Africa in 2018, out of 29,0000 rhinos remaining worldwide.
The legal market for ivory products provides a cover for illegal ivory products to flourish because of the ease of mixing the two. Enforcement efforts are often hampered by a lack of resources or the difficulty of visually distinguishing illegal ivory from legally acquired ivory.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service instituted a near-total ban on importing or engaging in the interstate sale of African elephant ivory in 2016. However, federal regulations do not address intrastate trade in African elephant ivory. U.S. states and the District of Columbia must do their part to ensure that their laws sufficiently protect at-risk animals.
California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, New Hampshire, Illinois and Minnesota have passed anti-wildlife trafficking laws that are similar to the legislation that the HSUS and HSI support in Washington, D.C. Voters in Oregon and Washington approved statewide ballot measures on the issue by 70-30 margins in both states.
Last Council Period, the Council of the District of Columbia’s Judiciary and Public Safety committee chaired by Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen heard public testimony on a previous version of this legislation but failed to advance the bill out of committee before the end of the Council Period.
WASHINGTON—The Board of Directors of Humane Society International announced today that it has selected Jeffrey Flocken as its new president. Flocken, who has been the organization’s senior vice president for programs and policy since February 2018, succeeds Kitty Block, who became president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States earlier this year.
“I’m so pleased that Humane Society International will be led by my colleague Jeffrey Flocken,” said Block. “HSI’s work is so vital to the protection of animals around the globe, and we are fortunate to have Jeff leading the way.”
“I’m honored to have been selected to lead this tremendous organization and I look forward to the opportunity to continue working with our talented and dedicated team both at our headquarters in Washington and our country offices around the globe,” said Flocken. “The need to protect animals in a fast-changing world is a moral imperative, and the threats are only increasing. But while the work can be daunting, growing public awareness, concern and action give us all reason to be hopeful that we can meet these challenges head on. And HSI is the right organization for tackling these challenges.”
Prior to coming to HSI, Flocken was the head of North America for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, he worked on international wildlife conservation at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and he served as a director at Conservation International. In 2005, Flocken co-founded Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders, a training program for young conservation professionals around the world. He also co-authored the award-winning book Wildlife Heroes, and he is an active board member for EWCL, the Jaguar Conservation Fund of Brazil, GRACE Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center, and the IUCN Tapir Specialist Group.
A native of Michigan, Flocken graduated from the University of Michigan and Wayne State University Law School. He lives in Arlington, Va., with his wife Mary Crimmings, their daughter Collette, and rescue cat Dasher.
END
3.52 million mice, dogs, monkeys, rabbits suffered and died in UK labs in 2018
Humane Society International / United Kingdom
Andrei Tchernov/iStockphoto
LONDON—Home Office statistics published today[1] reveal a shockingly high number of dogs, mice, cats, rabbits and other animals are still suffering in invasive, painful and sometimes lethal experiments in British laboratories despite unprecedented availability of high-tech and often more human-predictive non-animal approaches.
The Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 2018 show that a total of 3.52 million procedures were completed in the UK in 2018, including tests on mice (1.1 million), rats (170,665), birds (146,860), rabbits (11,159), guinea pigs (6,445), monkeys (3,207), dogs (4, 481), cats (159), horses (10,424) and fish (300,811). A total of 87,557 animals were subjected to severe suffering, the highest category allowed under the law.
Humane Society International Senior Scientist Dr Lindsay Marshall, who for 12 years managed a laboratory dedicated to animal-free research into respiratory diseases, said: “As a scientist myself, I know all too well the drawbacks of relying on animals to study and treat human disease. The fact is that animal models fail far more often than they succeed, so it’s hugely frustrating and worrying to see the UK, year after year, failing to move away from outdated animal experiments. It’s high time UK research funding bodies stopped squandering British taxpayer money and charitable donations on dead-end research, and made a serious investment in human organoids, organs-on-a-chip, computerised systems biology models, and other advanced, non-animal technologies that are the true future of modern medical research.”
The government made a commitment in 2010 to reduce animals used in scientific research, but almost 10 years after this declaration of intent[2], the UK remains one of the highest lab animal users in Europe. In those same years, non-animal technologies that can produce faster, cheaper and more human-relevant results, have advanced enormously:
Computers are much better than animals at predicting possible toxic effects of chemicals and drugs[3].
The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells has helped to remove the ethical barriers to stem cell use[4].
Scientists have created human-mimetic systems of almost every organ in the body. There is a human-on-a-chip for drug testing[5], a patient-on-a-chip is not far away[6] and chips have travelled to space to investigate the impact of ageing on the human body[7].
Dr Marshall is not alone in her opinion. A raft of academic reviews from expert scientists in a range of fields reach the same conclusion for conditions as diverse as autism, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease[8] and they call for more investment in human-relevant methods.
Dr Marshall continues: “Despite staggering advances in scientific technology, medical research in Britain remains irrationally wedded to broken animal models. If our government is truly committed to advancing medical progress for its citizens, and to reducing the use of animals in laboratories, significant funding must be redirected from animals to human-mimetic approaches, rather than the paltry 3% of the UK annual research spend that non-animal methods receive at present.”
The recent closure of two mouse breeding facilities[9] illustrates the growing recognition within the scientific community that a paradigm shift away from animal use is essential for medical progress. Recognition that fewer animals are required due to a “rise in the use of alternative technologies”[10] is a step in the right direction, yet the Home Office animal use statistics indicate that there is much more work required to reduce the body count.
Facts:
Despite the ever-increasing growth in animal procedures, there is no corresponding increase in the number of human medicines making it to the clinic. In recent years, both the European Medicines Agency and US Food and Drug Administration approved fewer new drugs than they had been approving earlier in the decade.
Most animal models are poor predictors of human response, with over 90% of new candidate drugs never making it to patients. That’s because pharmaceutical compounds that appear ‘safe’ and ‘effective’ in animal trials fail to deliver the same result when given to people; 55% do not effectively treat the condition for which they are intended, and almost 30% show signs of toxicity that were not seen in animal tests[11].
Advances in gene sequencing and phenotypic analysis in humans is ushering in the era of precision medicine, and focused funding and efforts on human-relevant technologies like these are more likely to provide disease understanding and much-needed new treatments.
Nearly 560,000 experiments in 2018 were deemed to have caused moderate or severe suffering to animals. Moderate suffering is described by the Home Office as causing short term moderate pain or distress to animals while severe suffering causes long-lasting extreme pain or distress.
ENDS
Contact: Dr Lindsay Marshall, 07719 531 675, lmarshall@hsi.org
Passini, et al. 2017 Human In Silico Drug Trials Demonstrate Higher Accuracy than Animal Models in Predicting Clinical Pro-Arrhythmic Cardiotoxicity. Front Physiol.8:668.
Luechtefeld et al. 2018 Machine learning of toxicological big data enables read-across structure activity relationships (RASAR) outperforming animal test reproducibility. Toxicological Sciences. 165 1, 1 September 2018: 198-212
Edington et al. (2018) Interconnected Microphysiological Systems for Quantitative Biology and Pharmacology Studies. Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 14;8(1):4530. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-22749-0
Savoji, et al. 2018 Cardiovascular Disease Models: A Game Changing Paradigm in Drug Discovery and Screening. Biomaterials. 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2018.09.036
Boeckmans et al. 2018. Human-based systems: Mechanistic NASH modelling just around the corner? Pharmacol Res. 134:257-267. 10.1016/j.phrs.2018.06.029
Muotri, A. R. 2016. The Human Model: Changing Focus on Autism Research. Biol Psychiatry. 79;8: 642-9.
Bowman, et al. 2018. Future Roadmaps for Precision Medicine Applied to Diabetes: Rising to the Challenge of Heterogeneity. Journal of Diabetes Research. 10.1155/2018/3061620
Clerc, et al. 2016. A look into the future of ALS research. Drug Discov Today. 21;6: 939-49
