Petition handed in to boost funding of animal-free testing

The campaigners handed in their petition on Monday, calling for animal-free testing in Switzerland. Keystone / Peter Schneider

An alliance of animal rights and environment groups has called for more public funds to promote animal-free alternative experiments.

A petition signed by 27 organisations and 13,000 individuals was handed in to parliament on Monday according to the Animalfree Research foundationExternal link.

They complain that nearly a third of the funds from the National Research Foundation – totalling CHF400 million ($446 million) annually – is used to finance projects that rely on animal testing without proof that the results are valid for humans.

In 2018 nearly 600,000 animals were used for experiments, the campaigners say. Instead biomedical research in Switzerland should abandon these forms of testing.

However, an alternative research centre only receives CHF3 million annually, the groups argue.

The government earlier this month launched a new national research programme, Advancing 3R – Animals, Research and SocietyExternal link, in a bid to reduce animal experiments.

A people’s initiative is also pending which aims to ban all experiments on animals and people and the import of products on which such experiments have been carried out.