More than 115 million animals globally suffer and die each year in research laboratories, around 12 million in the European Union alone. Measures to update the EU’s 20-year old law on animal experiments have just been agreed. HSI is striving to ensure the new law is fully implemented to protect animals and promote humane science.

The new law brings genuine progress—a ban on research on great apes and restrictions on wild-caught animals (both with exceptions); new ethical and scientific review prior to experiment licensing; and increased action to develop alternatives to animals in medical research and regulatory testing. However politicians rejected committing to a targeted strategy to replace animals over time and there are few significant restrictions on using non-human primates or other species.

During negotiations, HSI and our allies launched a "demonstration" in cyber-space with tens of thousands of caring citizens showing support for animal protection. Our target is 100,000 marchers to show EU governments and the European Commission people want the law implemented quickly, robustly and with every effort made to advance non-animal research.