Dutch Government Bans Animal Testing

Dutch agriculture minister Martijn van Dam recently announced his plan to phase out the testing of chemicals on animals by 2025. In December, Van Dam commissioned an advisory report, released by the Netherlands National Committee for the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific Purposes. The report focused on creating a roadmap to transition away from the use of animals in laboratories for the testing of chemical substances, food ingredients, pesticides, and medicine. “For basic scientific research, the possibilities for reducing animal testing vary from one research domain to the next,” the report stated. “Here, targets must be set for each domain for how animal testing can be reduced.” The report urged officials across government agencies to collaborate on methods for replacing animals in laboratories with innovative technologies. Unfortunately, the ban will not apply to animals used for pre-clinical research for human diseases such as obesity, diabetes, stroke, and cancer. Several countries around the world, including Taiwan and South Korea, have recently implemented similar policies to phase out non-clinical testing on animals in the coming years.