No More Animal Testing in The USA
Congress sends landmark bill to reduce animal use in chemical testing to Obama
As pet lovers, most of us can’t help but love all creatures, big and small and particularly the most helpless of them…
The long-established practices of poisoning animals for a variety of purposes is on the way out, and it will soon be replaced by human biology testing that will give us better results and not leave a trail of animal victims in our wake.
For decades animal activists around the world have been marching, boycotting, informing the populace and in some cases taking the law in their own hands in protest against the use of animals for the testing of drugs and chemicals.
Cosmetic companies, medical companies, chemical companies and numerous other industries, have for decades submitted captive animals to painful and unnecessary experimentation. These poor creatures are often bred for this sole purpose and live out their pitiful lives in cages, never experiencing love, sunlight, fresh air or even the touch of another creature other than those who commit the atrocities to which they are subjected.
On June 7th the Senate gave final approval to a bill that rewrites a federal law enacted over 40 years ago regulating the use of chemicals. The new bill contains, for the first time in an environmental and health protecting statue, an explicit decree from Congress to minimize animal testing and to create a clear preference for the developments and use of alternative methods and strategies.
Congress must embrace the scientific development of non-animal methods of testing, building on those already widely used and accepted by scientists. In the very near future all toxicity testing will be performed on human biochips, loaded with cells accurately representing the heart, muscles, brain and other tissues. This approach will be made possible by the research and development of induced human stem cells and will allow the testing of drugs and toxins cheaply, more accurately and at a much quicker pace than the current archaic and medieval system.
Change is not only happening in the US but is a global movement. Europe has already banned cosmetic animals testing and trade and India will follow with legislation next year. Australia will soon also follow suit.
It seems as if there is a genuine global movement, combining moral intentions, and a smarter and more efficient system of testing drugs and toxins, that will in effect obliterate such barbaric use of animals, leaving the practice in our naive and shameful past.
This article is misleading in the extreme. Beginning with the title, it paints a false picture of the state of animal testing in the U.S. The law passed by Congress is a wonderful first step toward reducing animals tests, but it is only that: a first step. Saying that animal tests are “soon to be replaced” and “in the near future, all toxicity testing” will be performed on methods other than animals, is simply not true. Great barriers have to be overcome for all factions to embrace non-animal tests. The bill to ban cosmetics tests in the US cannot even make it out of the first committee it’s been assigned to and lacks sponsors and a Senate companion bill. Progress is being made, but we are not there yet. So let’s not get complacent and think the war is won when it’s only just begun.