The Guardian view on animal testing: we can stop sacrificing millions of lives for our own health | Editorial

"Science is a slaughterhouse. We rarely acknowledge the degree to which animal life underwrites the research that provides us with medicines, or the regulation that keeps us safe. Live animals were used in 2.64m officially sanctioned scientific procedures in the UK in 2024, many of them distressing or painful and many of them fatal. But the government's new strategy to phase out animal testing published earlier this month suggests that in the near future emerging technologies"

"But some needlessly cruel experiments still take place: the forced swim test (FST) for example, in which a rodent is placed in a body of water it cannot escape and researchers measure whether antidepressants extend the time it struggles for life. The government says no new FST licences will be granted, in effect banning it. Similar targets are set over the next few years to end the testing of caustic chemicals on eyes and skin."

Animal experimentation underpins medicines and safety regulation, with 2.64 million officially sanctioned procedures in the UK in 2024, many distressing, painful, or fatal. The government has introduced a strategy to phase out animal testing, banning new licences for the forced swim test and setting targets to end caustic-chemical testing on eyes and skin. Many common practices, such as inducing tumours in mice for cancer research, persist and are viewed by some as acceptable despite their brutality. Public and scientific acceptance depends on proving alternatives are as good or better. Emerging alternatives include organ-on-a-chip systems and machine-learning toxicity prediction, already in use.

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