At a hearing of the Bundestag Petitions Committee on monkey experiments, Silvia Breher, Federal Animal Welfare Commissioner and Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, stated that the national reduction strategy on animal testing developed within the traffic light coalition government was “well-established and incorporated into the EU reduction strategy.” The German Animal Welfare Federation therefore urgently warns against outsourcing the national reduction strategy entirely to the EU level. The reduction strategy, developed with the participation of research, industry, and animal welfare organizations, has not yet been published. Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Federation, comments:
"The reasoning now put forward—that national results are already ‘priced in’ to the EU strategy—raises fears that the field of animal-free methods and alternative procedures will de facto be shifted to the EU. This threatens to bring about a standstill with fatal consequences: millions of animals will continue to suffer in animal experiments, while animal-free methods will receive insufficient support.
It is important that Germany advocates for the reduction of animal testing at the EU level. However, national progress in the field of animal-free science should not be shifted to Brussels through inaction alone. We urge the federal government and the responsible Federal Ministry of Agriculture to immediately publish and implement the national reduction strategy themselves. This would not only be a step forward for animal welfare, but also a signal that science and ethics can go hand in hand. I strongly caution against relying instead on an EU strategy whose concrete implementation is uncertain."
*Source:German Bundestag - Petitioner: “Animal-free research is the future”
