We call on the Government to listen to public opinion and put a plan in place to end animal experiments
65% of Great Britain wants to see a binding plan in place to phase out animal testing.
In a poll carried out for Cruelty Free International by YouGov in September, two-thirds (66%) also agree that a target date should be set for the end of all animal experiments.
In addition to wanting an end date for animal tests, polling showed strong opposition to the continued use of all animal experiments:
85% find it unacceptable to test cosmetics ingredients on animals, yet the Government have announced that cosmetic ingredient testing can resume in the UK for the first time since it was banned in 1998.
8 in 10 find it unacceptable to test on dogs and 76% think it is unacceptable to carry out tests on monkeys. However, the UK is one of the top users of dogs and monkeys in Europe.
Despite public opinion being firmly against all animal testing, the number of animals suffering in experiments in the UK remains the highest in Europe, with Home Office statistics for 2020 revealing that 2.9 million animal experiments took place.
That is why we’ve joined forces with Animal Free Research UK and OneKind to launch our #TargetZero petition which has been signed so far by 78,000 people all calling on the Government to set a clear and ambitious plan to phase out animal tests.
Kerry Postlewhite, Director of Public Affairs at Cruelty Free International, said: “Our research with YouGov shows that the public is overwhelmingly supportive of bringing animal testing to an end in the UK with deadlines applied. We are calling on the Government to bring forward a pro-active strategy for ending reliance on outdated and unreliable animal experiments. Like those deployed in other important policy areas such as climate emissions and pollution, the roadmap should contain agreed milestones, targets and timetables.
“Not only do animal experiments cause inexcusable suffering to animals in laboratories, they represent Victorian science. It is time that we adopted a fundamentally different approach and followed both the science and public opinion.”
Please add your voice to the 78,000 amazing people who have already signed the Target Zero petition and help us reach 100,000 signatures.