Image by Twyla Francois

Did you know that Canada still requires new drugs to be tested on animals but that the U.S. ended its own federal mandate for the animal testing of new drugs and for biosimilars back in 2022? It’s time Canada followed the American example and ended this cruel and outdated requirement. ADAV has initiated the petition described below. We thank The Honourable Don Davis, MP for sponsoring it as a parliamentary petition. Please take a moment to read and sign. Thank you!

Petition to The Minister of Health

Whereas:

• In 2021, the European Parliament voted to phase out the use of animals in experimentation and testing;
• In the US, passage of the recent Medical Modernization Act has seen an end to the mandate for the testing of new drugs on animals;
• Technical advances in human-relevant testing and research have already successfully demonstrated increased efficiency, reliability, cost-effectiveness and environmental sustainability; and
• Institutions such as the Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods at the University of Windsor stand as an example of academic excellence and broader progress in Canadian medical research. Yet such centres remain underfunded while Canada’s animal use numbers stay high, at over 3.5 million per year according to the latest reporting from the Canadian Council on Animal Care.

We, the undersigned, Residents of Canada, call upon the Minister of Health to

1. Direct Health Canada to end the entrenched requirement for the testing of new drugs on animals in favour of sophisticated, human-relevant and reliable evidence methods;

2. Enact policies that promote health research and testing innovation and which will save millions of animal – and possibly many human – lives each year in Canada;

Reallocate funding from repetitive animal testing-based science to the development, validation and implementation of scientifically and morally superior methods; and

Uphold Canada’s responsibility as a signee of the International Cooperation on Alternative Test Methods (ICATM) to reduce and replace the use of animals in biomedical research, training and testing.

Thank you!