We urge European Commission to speed up animal testing phase-out plans after stats show stalled progress
We urge Ursula von der Leyen’s incoming European Commission to accelerate plans to phase out animal testing after the release of statistics for 2021 and 2022 showed that progress in reducing the number of animals used in science in the European Union has stalled.
We are, though, pleased to see a significant decrease in the use of animals in regulatory testing (tests which prove the safety and efficacy of consumer products), which is likely due to an increase in the adoption of approved non-animal testing methods. This has led to a 21% decrease in the use of animals in regulatory testing since 2020.
Statistics published this week by the European Commission show that there were 9.34 million tests on animals in the EU and Norway in 2022. This is an 8% decrease from 2021 to 2022, but the number of tests has also risen by 7% since 2020.
At 2.13 million, France carried out the most tests using animals in the EU in 2022 – a rise of 29% since 2020. Germany conducted 1.73 million tests and Norway 1.41 million (95% of which involved fish). Spain conducted 1.12 million tests on animals, an increase of 53% on their 2020 total.
These top four countries accounted for 68% of the total number of tests involving animals in the EU and Norway in 2022.
There was a small decrease in tests which were reported to have caused ‘severe suffering’, from 2020 to 2022, but a significant increase of 19% in tests which caused moderate suffering (the second highest level of pain), to over 3.71 million. Overall, the number of tests causing moderate or severe suffering to the animals involved totalled 49%.
From 2020 to 2022, there were increases in the uses of:
- Dogs – up 2% to 14,395
- Monkeys – up 5% to 7,658
- Horses, donkeys and cross-breeds– up 5% to 5,098
- Rabbits – up 8% to 378,133
- Goats – up 69% to 2,680
- Pigs - up 18% to 89,687
- Reptiles – up by 74% to 5,937
- Cephalopods (e.g., squid and octopus) – up by 65% to 2,694
- Cats – down 15% to 3,383
- Ferrets – down 27% to 941
- Guinea pigs – down 23% to 86,192
- Sheep – down 12% to 17,542.