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A few days ago, I wrote about how animal testing in the U.K. is on the rise. It struck a chord with a lot of PETA Files readers, who were outraged that animals continue to be killed in cruel experiments, despite the availability of more effective, non-animal methods. The very first person to comment on the blog was Carla*, who said:

Yes, most chemicals put into a living, breathing body will kill you or leave you very, very ill. I'm sick and tired of hearing about these toxicity tests—sooo yesterday—and they continue to reap in funds so they can continue to torture and [maim] their victims. Cosmetics too—it's all BS!! [Vivisectionists] are just plain sadistic beings without a soul!!

The rest of you echoed her response.

Because this is an issue that resonates with so many people, I thought you might enjoy reading this article in the U.K.'s Guardian, written by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. Tatchell attacks the recent Home Office report head-on and calls on the U.K. government to work diligently to rid the nation of crude animal experiments. The entire article is available after the jump.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

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We just received word from our friends at PETA Europe that the U.K.'s Home Office—it's like our Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Agency, and U.S. Department of Agriculture all rolled into one—has published its 2008 statistics on animal experiments. Sadly, the information in the report is less than encouraging. More than 3.5 million animals were abused and killed in 3.7 million experiments this past year: That's an increase from last year of 15 percent in individual animals and an increase of 14 percent in procedures. This is the highest number of animals used for experiments in the U.K. since the 1980s and the biggest proportionate rise in numbers since the Home Office began keeping records in the 1940s.

To make it all the more frustrating, only 70 percent of toxicity tests—the ones in which animals are deliberately poisoned to test chemicals—were required by law, meaning that nearly 30 percent of these archaic and needless tests could have been abandoned entirely.

While the number of European tests are rocketing up, the numbers of new medical treatments are going down—not to mention that 90 percent of drugs that pass animal trials fail in humans. All of this from a nation that is leaps and bounds ahead of the U.S. in approving non-animal testing methods for lab studies.

These numbers show us just how vital it is for compassionate people to take action. If we don't speak up, the suffering of animals will continue to be ignored.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

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Our awesome friends over at PETA Europe have some exciting news! With their help and funding, new skin irritation tests that do not use animals have been successfully validated to replace the use of rabbits completely! This will save thousands of rabbits.

This wonderful news means that animals will not be used in the overwhelming majority of such tests in the future in Europe. The MatTek Corporation announced yesterday that the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods' Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC) has formally endorsed the scientific validity of the company's Modified EpiDerm Skin Irritation Test as well as L'Oreal's SkinEthic test. I know those are an awful lot of big, impressive words, but it basically means that the big men and women on campus are totally down with these new processes, which do not involve animal testing.

This will allow manufacturers worldwide to use these exciting new non-animal methods. It will also help manufacturers test cosmetic ingredients humanely, which is especially important because animal testing for skin irritation and most other purposes will be banned in Europe as of March 2009. Tens of thousands of rabbits have been used for skin irritation tests each year in the past, but we say, "No more!"

The validation of these tests is an important step in adopting cruelty-free scientific methods that are effective and humane, and PETA Europe should be so proud to have played a part in that. You can read more about this whole situation here.

On another totally not surprising—but totally awful—note, the U.S. still does not accept these tests. We are, of course, writing the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle (read letter here), to tell him to get the U.S. to stop stalling!

Posted by Christine Doré

worldproutassembly / CC

Going to Europe? Fantastic! Everybody needs a vacation, and what better way to spend your time than viewing the history, attractions, and culture of another country? Achtung, though! In your travels, you might stumble (especially if you've been pub crawling) across marine parks, roadside zoos, donkey rides, and even captive dolphins.

These animals never get a vacation. Day in and day out, they are confined to tiny cages, forced to dance around in tutus at the St. Petersburg circus, or left to live an unfulfilled life in an inadequate enclosure that is light years removed from their natural habitats. Europe offers so many great opportunities for tourists that your stay can be crammed full of cruelty-free memories. To make it easier on you, PETA Europe has put together a list of places to avoid like the Great Plague on your European vacation.

1. Running of the Bulls—Pamplona, Spain
   Every year, more than 40,000 bulls are taunted, stabbed repeatedly, and finally killed by the matador in front of a stadium full of onlookers. Before the bulls enter the ring, petroleum jelly is often rubbed in their eyes or they might be beaten with sandbags. And the Running of the Bulls isn't any more humane to these animals, who often crash into the walls when racing down the narrow street. Instead of paying to see these animals slaughtered, join the Running of the Nudes campaign!
2. Schwaben Park Chimpanzee Show—Baden-Württemberg, Germany
   The chimpanzee show at Schwaben Park is truly a house of horrors. The chimpanzees are forced to perform demeaning tricks on leashes and are often trained to perform with regular beatings or the use of shock collars. Instead of paying to see these animals perform confusing tricks that they don't understand, visit a non-animal theme park.
3. Donkey Rides—Beaches All Over the U.K.
   Sunning on the beach is great for us humans: We can take a quick dip or catch a bite to eat when we're too hot or hungry. But it's pure hell for donkeys who are confined to the beach and forced to cart children around in the hot sand. Some donkey-ride operators at beach resorts like Bridlington and Blackpool even keep the donkeys chained together at all times. Instead of taking a donkey ride, swim in the sea or build a sandcastle.
4. Berlin Zoo—Berlin, Germany
   This zoo might be known best as the home of Knut, the polar bear that the Berlin Zoo mercilessly paraded around in front of media cameras and throngs of visitors. More recently, however, zoo director Bernhard Blaszkiewitz has been accused of slaughtering the zoo's animals and selling their body parts to be used in Chinese medicines. Berlin is loaded with history; visit a museum or the great Berlin Wall instead!
5. Edinburgh Zoo—Edinburgh, Scotland
   In 2000, a number of endangered Arabian antelopes were bred and then destroyed by Edinburgh Zoo officials. Clearly, zoo officials don't have animals' best interests in mind. Instead of the zoo, we recommend visiting a loch, a castle, or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And if you're a wildlife lover, go deer-spotting!
6. Mediterraneo Marine Park—White Rocks, Malta
   The Mediterraneo Marine Park uses bottlenose dolphins in performances and offers visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Unfortunately, visitors are often unaware that these dolphins are captured in the wild or imported from conflict-ridden countries. A great alternative is to take a dolphin- and whale-spotting holiday that doesn't involve capturing or handling these animals.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

The Washington Post has just released an investigation into the shocking lack of progress that exists in U.S. government policies on animal experimentation. The Washington Post began its own investigation after PETA presented evidence of government negligence. As the article points out, hundreds of millions of animals in this country are still being killed in gruesome ways to test substances like Botox, even though there are modern, non-animal methods available. Part of the problem is a categorical failure by the agency that’s charged with reducing the use of animals in toxicity testing—the folks over at ICCVAM (who I’ve talked about a bit before on this blog)—to actually do their jobs. As the Post article puts it:

"The controversy over the Botox test highlights the slow pace of government efforts to replace or reduce the large numbers of animals used by pharmaceutical companies, chemical manufacturers and consumer firms to ensure that their products are safe for people. A decade after Congress created a panel to spur the development of non-animal tests, only four such tests have been approved out of 185 reviews, according to the panel's records."

During the same period of time, ICCVAM’s European counterpart has recommended more than two dozen non-animal tests, and the U.S. continues to lag well behind Europe in adopting modern alternatives to animal testing, which—in addition to causing unnecessary suffering and death for countless animals—poses a significant threat to human health.

There is a bit of good news, though, in the form of a landmark report by the National Academy of Sciences, which indicates that the United States may finally be ready to start catching up to other nations by adopting modern testing methods. But this isn’t going to happen while groups like ICCVAM are allowed to stand in the way. We’re currently calling for a congressional investigation into ICCVAM's negligence, and asking that a new entity be created to oversee the implementation of the NAS recommendations. If you’d like to help out by contacting your members of Congress about this issue, you can do so through the webform here.

And definitely check out the Post article. This issue is monumentally important, but doesn’t get a lot of ink, so it’s great to see a publication like The Washington Post giving it its due.