Federal government plans separate law for animal experiments – animal rights alliance warns against lowering protection status
- Joint press release
The German Legal Association for Animal Welfare Law (DJGT), Doctors Against Animal Experiments (DAAE), the German Animal Welfare Federation, the Federal Association People for Animal Rights, People for Animal Rights Baden-Württemberg, the Federation Against the Abuse of Animals (bmt), and the animal rights organization PETA have written to the German federal government urging it to refrain from introducing a separate law for “scientific animal experiments.” Detaching the relevant provisions from the Animal Welfare Act could significantly weaken the legal status of animals and thereby violate constitutional law, the organizations warn. They are also calling for a hearing and an official review of the current legal situation. Instead of enacting a new law, they recommend updating the outdated General Administrative Regulation, which could be implemented more quickly and with greater legal certainty while preserving the existing protection status of animals.
“We fear that this law would further reduce the individual protection of so-called laboratory animals in the name of ‘cutting red tape.’ That would not only be blatantly outdated but a pre-announced breach of the constitution,” the animal rights alliance states.
“While the European Union is presenting its roadmap this spring for phasing out animal testing in chemical safety assessments, the signal from the German federal government is alarming: instead of continuing a reduction strategy for animal experiments, innovation, investment, and ultimately scientific progress are being left to others.”
The participating organizations advocate that the federal government refrain from enacting legislation on so-called scientific animal experiments and instead support a necessary paradigm shift toward innovative, animal-free research—with the involvement of all scientific stakeholders. This requires a clear strategy and, above all, targeted funding.
Alliance against deterioration of animal experimentation law
The federal government plans to centralize and thereby simplify the approval procedure for animal experiments. At the same time, the criminal offense under Section 17(1) of the Animal Welfare Act for so-called “surplus animals” could be repealed, allowing animals to be killed without a “reasonable cause.” In the current reporting period, approximately 1.33 million animals were used in scientific experiments, and an additional 627,000 animals were killed to use their organs or tissues for research purposes. Furthermore, 1.1 million animals were bred and killed as “surplus animals” in the name of research without ever having been “used” in experiments.
Background
Removing the provisions on animal experimentation from the Animal Welfare Act and transferring them into a separate law could undermine existing animal protection standards. The project is listed in the coalition agreement under the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space as part of the “Innovation Freedom Act.” According to the alliance, this would drastically worsen the current legal situation for animals in German laboratories. In key respects, the plan would violate Article 20a of the German Basic Law, which establishes animal protection as a state objective and includes a prohibition against regression. The proposed law would therefore be unconstitutional.
Animal-free methods such as complex in vitro models, biochip technologies, and AI-supported procedures already provide valuable research results today and must be prioritized in terms of funding and recognition. Despite significant advances in the development of complex microphysiological systems, many of these methods are still insufficiently utilized due to structural and financial barriers.
Instead of legally facilitating the “use” of animals in research and legitimizing their killing, broad application of innovative animal-free methods should be enabled—through expanded funding, development of the necessary infrastructure, and improved training programs for young scientists. A nationwide phase-out strategy, such as the one presented by the United Kingdom, is the appropriate instrument. The animal rights alliance emphasizes that merely reducing animal experiments and improving experimental conditions cannot serve as a sustainable strategy for modern science and health research.