The latest figures for laboratory animals in 2024, broken down by federal state and published by the German Center for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), show that Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, and North Rhine-Westphalia have the highest numbers of animals used for scientific purposes.
“In 2024, 3,063,569 animals were used and killed in the name of science – a figure that remains shocking. The federal states must finally take concrete steps together with the federal government to replace animal testing with modern, contemporary research approaches,” emphasizes Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Association. Even though the number of laboratory animals has been steadily declining for several years, simply reducing the numbers is not enough: "In basic research, the area with the largest number of animals used, the numbers have remained high for years. It is time to finally rethink our approach. We need a clear strategy for phasing out animal testing. The key is to restructure the allocation of funding in order to promote the development of animal-free methods as a top priority," says Schröder. It is alarming that 1,109,100 so-called “surplus animals” continue to be bred in Germany. Although they were intended for scientific purposes, they were ultimately killed because they were surplus to requirements. These include mainly rodents and fish, but also frogs, chickens, and pigs.
NUMBER OF “SURPLUS ANIMALS” HIGHEST IN BAVARIA
In 2024, most animal experiments were carried out in Bavaria with 255,456 animals, followed by Baden-Württemberg with 227,935 animals and North Rhine-Westphalia with 217,724 animals. In the last three years, these three federal states have occupied the top spots in varying order. Bavaria had the highest number of animals killed as “surplus” with 222,408 animals. North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin follow in second and third place with 208,408 and 172,334 animals respectively.
PRIMATES STILL IN “USE”
In all federal states, mice and fish were primarily used for animal testing. But primates also had to suffer again – even though the number of monkeys and prosimians used in animal testing has fallen compared to the previous year and has reached its lowest level since records began. Of the total of 977 Javanese monkeys used for scientific purposes, 800 were used in North Rhine-Westphalia alone, which is about 82%. Of the remainder, 152 were used in Baden-Württemberg and 25 in Lower Saxony.
