90,000 signatures to save monkeys from cruel tests in Dutch laboratories
The animal rights organization Animal Rights on Monday offered the Dutch government ninety thousand signatures from citizens who want tests on monkeys to end in the country. They want a complete ban on all monkey experiments.
“Every year, the government puts millions of euros funding into research with laboratory animals. However, the reason animal experiments are funded and approved is for the development of effective drugs or vaccines. But since results are lacking, this moral condoning (of testing on animals) completely disappears,” Animal Rights said in a statement.
Three locations in the Netherlands still use monkeys in research: the Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) in Rijswijk, the Netherlands Brain Bank in Amsterdam and the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam.
The pain, suffering and stress monkeys get from laboratory experiments is immense. There is also enough scientific research proving that testing on animals is not effective and that using human-like alternatives like lab-grown human cell cultures and human tissues are better methods to test if a vaccine or drugs will work, Dr. Jarrod Bailey told The Animal Reader.
Sadly, testing on animals has become more a ‘habit’ and driven by money -laboratories get government funding- than a necessary or useful method. The chances of animal experiments actually benefiting humans is wildly overestimated.
“If we no longer want to allow the development of our knowledge of disease and health to be held back by animal testing, the government must fully focus on innovation without laboratory animals,” Animal Rights said. They want the government to start giving funding to more effective non-animal research.
“Animal experiments were never ethically sound, but they have never been more scientifically unacceptable than today. Science can do so much better (than using animals).”
Originally published at https://www.theanimalreader.com on December 14, 2020. The Animal Reader is an animal news platform.
