The government’s plan to end animal testing must be more than just warm words
4 min read
Despite decades of advancements in the area of animal-free scientific methods, more than 2.5 million animals were used in experiments in UK laboratories in 2024.
To make progress on their manifesto commitment to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, the Government recently published a roadmap that aims to accelerate the use of alternative methods to animal testing in scientific research.
As a vet, I know how passionately people in Britain care about improving animal protection - this is a compelling argument for replacing animal testing, but it isn’t the only one.
Experimenting on animals is an approach that is starting to be overtaken by new human-specific methods. As a vet, I know just how differently animals and people can react to substances, with common human foodstuffs like chocolate and raisins being poisonous to dogs. So it’s not surprising that animal tests aren’t fully reliable at predicting whether new drugs will be safe and effective for people.
The progress promised in the strategy can’t come soon enough. Recent statistics show that there was only a 1.2% decrease in the total number of procedures using animals in 2024 compared to 2023. This included 2,646 procedures using dogs, 1,936 procedures using non-human primates and 11,483 procedures using horses. It can be easy to forget that each of these represents an individual, capable of suffering, whether it's the dogs and cats with whom we share our homes, or less ‘popular’ animals like mice and rats.
On the surface, the strategy unveiled last week is a positive step in the right direction. However, if you dig a bit deeper, there are some omissions that might make progress slow or even stall before it begins.
The roadmap lacks a clear timeline by which the Government hopes to end animal experiments and contains no legislation to hold plans to account. Without this, the great work being done to move toward humane science that works for both animals and humans could never be seen. Charity Animal Free Research UK has been calling for the Government to set an ambition of phasing out animal experiments over the next decade, and supporting the scientific community with the transition to more modern and human specific techniques.
We must also consider the future development and supply for new veterinary medicines. As animal testing for human drugs is phased out, the research and development of treatments intended for animals could be forgotten, as currently much of that research is drawn from human drug trials undergoing an animal testing stage.
A controversial test mentioned within the strategy is the Forced Swim Test (FST) – which was used in 250 procedures in 2024. This old technique dates back to the 1970s and involves placing mice in a container of water from which they cannot escape. It has historically been used as a model of depression in humans, and to screen potential new antidepressant drugs. However, as recognised in the strategy, the test “has limited scientific validity”. The strategy states it aims “to support the validation of alternatives to FST by the end of this parliament to replace the use of the FST" which is welcome, but leaves wide open the opportunity for delay and offers no concrete and proactive measures to get this validation of alternatives in place promptly.
So, what can replace animal experiments? Approaches using artificial intelligence and the advanced use of human cells and tissues can provide results that are much more relevant to people. Since they’re based directly on human biology, they don’t need to be translated from one species to another. Just one example is the liver-on-a-chip device that was able to correctly identify 87% of drugs that carried a risk of liver toxicity in humans.
It is encouraging that the strategy mentions funding and support to researchers to adopt these alternative methods, but it lacks detail on how this will be achieved. Shifting to human-specific technologies has the potential to strengthen UK science, biotech and innovation, and so I’d welcome prioritisation of research into these methods.
Britain has the expertise, public support and scientific tools to ultimately progress beyond animal experimentation. The Government’s roadmap is a welcome acknowledgement that change is needed, but without clear timelines and measures of success in place to hold ourselves accountable, it risks becoming little more than warm words. It’s time to match our ambition with action.
Dr Danny Chambers is the Liberal Democrat MP for Winchester and a veterinary surgeon
