In animal testing, many animals are subjected to varying degrees of pain and suffering. This can be the case even before they are used in experiments. Breeding and genetic manipulation can result in animals being born with diseases and/or deformities. Almost all animals used in animal experiments die as a result of the experiments or are killed at the end of the tests.

This is what Project 1882 is doing to phase out animal testing:

• We put pressure on politicians to invest more money in animal-free research and for European countries  to adopt national courses of action to phase out animal testing.
• We inform the public about the animal tests that are carried out and about the alternative methods that are available.
• We lobby for stronger legislation against animal testing at national, global and EU level.
• We work to ensure that companies and government agencies make good decisions that will lead to a reduction in animal testing.
• We campaign for fewer animals to be used in experiments.

Examples of experiments that cause severe pain and other suffering include exposing animals to: 

• infections that cause them to become seriously ill or die,
• testing the effectiveness of vaccines,
• cancer studies that progress to advanced stages,
• inducing severe medical conditions (such as painful joint disease or MS-like disease) without providing pain relief or other forms of mitigating treatment; breeding animals with genetic diseases that are expected to result in significant and permanent impairment,
• forced swimming or physical exercise to the point of exhaustion,
• toxicity tests that are conducted in such a way that animals die as a result of the test.(1)

Poisoning

Animals are sometimes made dependent on drugs such as amphetamines or cocaine and may suffer withdrawal symptoms. When animals are used in toxicity tests, they are not provided with any pain relief or other forms of mitigating treatment. Toxicity tests can cause different levels of distress depending on how they are conducted. Acute toxicity tests are designed to determine how high a dose of a substance the animal can tolerate and may be conducted in such a way that the animals die from the poisoning or the high dose. In other cases, these tests may be stopped at a certain stage, such as when the animal goes into convulsions or cannot be provoked into activity by touch.

Painful procedures

It is common for individuals to be subjected to measures or procedures that may cause severe suffering.(2)

There is strong resistance among many animal-using researchers to switch to methods that cause less suffering because of validity of the research. This is a major animal welfare issue. One example of inappropriate methods is orbital puncture blood sampling. This means that the blood sample is taken from the eye socket from a vessel behind the eye on mice and rats. There is a risk of damage to the eye, and this risk is increased if the sample is taken several times from the same animal, sometimes several times in a short period of time. There are other ways to obtain blood samples, but many animals are nevertheless still being subjected to repeated orbital punctures.

Poor environment and high mortality

There is also strong evidence that the cramped and barren environment of laboratory facilities is detrimental to animals and leads to increased mortality.(3)

Almost all animals used in animal testing die as a result of the tests or are killed at the end of the tests. There are some exceptions, such as patient animals used in veterinary experiments, animals used in some behavioral studies, and some wild animals used in testing. But these are not listed as animal testing in many EU member states.

Such methods may be based, for example, on:

• cell cultures,
• genes and cell fragments,
• lower organisms (such as bacteria, yeast, algae, fungi and plants),
• chemical analysis methods,
• computer models, mathematical models,
• tests on human volunteers and experiments on dummies.