The HSUS

Tell the FDA to end animal testing!

Every day, in labs around the country, dogs, monkeys, rats and other animals are forced to endure painful experiments because of a flawed drug approval process. These animals spend their entire lives in barren laboratory settings, are forced to ingest—or are injected with—potentially toxic substances, endure various other painful and distressful procedures and are killed when the test ends.

These tests are not only cruel, but inaccurate, with approximately 90% of drugs ultimately failing in human trials. Around half of these failures are due to unexpected toxic effects in humans following animal tests specifically designed to detect these toxic effects. We must do better.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been a key player in promoting these outdated tests. The agency’s guidance and regulations strongly encourage companies to conduct extensive animal tests to demonstrate that their drugs are safe for humans. Drug companies know that animal tests are the easiest and fastest path to FDA approval despite the availability of new human cell-based test methods that could reduce animal use immediately.

Although we’re encouraged by FDA’s interest in developing and using more non-animal test methods, if we have any hope of ending the cruelty of animal testing, the FDA must commit to large-scale change. They must make it clear that animal tests are not the only option for drug approval and work to create incentives for companies to both use and develop non-animal alternatives such as cell cultures, stem cells, “human organoids,” and computer modeling.

Your voice is crucial in this fight! Please take a moment to contact the FDA and urge them to stop relying on outdated animal testing and instead commit to and prioritize a shift towards more accurate non-animal test methods.

TAKE ACTION
Please use the form to send a message to the FDA urging them to end animal testing.

This action alert is for U.S. residents. International advocates, please visit Humane Society International.

Your Message

Subject*

Dr.

Patrizia

Cavazzoni

FDA

Dear Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni,

I am writing to urge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop encouraging companies to submit data from outdated and inaccurate animal tests to seek drug approval and, instead, prioritize a shift toward accepting and incentivizing the use of non-animal test methods. Animal tests are expensive, time consuming and not reliable predictors of human responses to drugs. In fact, approximately 90% of drugs ultimately fail in human trials—an estimated half of this is due to unexpected toxicity in humans following animal tests where no toxicity was observed.

Animal testing will always have severe limitations while human-based technologies will only continue to improve. There are ever-increasing examples of non-animal approaches providing superior information to animal tests, such as organ-on-a-chip technologies, computational modelling, 3D bioprinting and organoids.

Above all else, animal testing is inherently cruel. At one lab, a Humane Society of the United States investigator watched as several beagles who experienced fevers, tremors, rapid heart rates, labored breathing and unsteadiness following a high dose of a test substance were ordered to be dosed again, despite the dramatically harmful effects of the test substance. In another instance, the investigator comforted a dog as he lay dying on his kennel floor—hypersalivating, trembling, vomiting, moaning and unable to stand. The dog was not euthanized by the veterinarian until the following day.

I am pleased that the FDA has taken steps to reduce animal testing and that they requested funding to prioritize the reduction of animal testing, but there’s still more work to be done.  To benefit humans and animals, I urge the agency to promote the development and use of non-animal test methods and to proactively communicate to drug companies in which cases data from non-animal methods are accepted.

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