Other Countries are Looking to End Animal Testing. In Canada, there’s a Holdup.

Image above: A 3D bioprinted liver tissue, very similar in appearance to real human liver tissue. (Submitted by Charu Chandrasekera)

From CBC Radio.

The U.S., U.K., and EU all have plans to phase out animal testing.

Charu Chandrasekera distinctly remembers the moment she realized she needed a career change.

A biomedical researcher, she had been using mice to study heart failure. But everything changed when her father needed a quadruple bypass.

“I looked at him, and all the other people in that ward, and I asked myself, ‘Is the work that I’m doing … ever going to help patients like these?’ And the answer was a resounding no.”

That’s because the information learned using animal testing often doesn’t translate into success in humans. Ninety per cent of drugs tested as safe and effective in animals end up failing in human trials, according to several studies.

She pivoted to developing alternatives to animal testing, founding the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods at Ontario’s University of Windsor in 2017. She helped develop technologies like 3D bioprinted tissues using human cells, to monitor health changes in a petri dish instead of an animal.

But these days, her 3D bioprinter sits in a storage unit. She was forced to close her lab in 2024 due to a lack of funding.

“The centre’s work changed the animal testing conversation in our country. And then it disappeared,” she said. “And only because, unlike in other comparable countries, our government didn’t see it as a priority to fund it.”

To read more & listen to the Quirks and Quarks documentary on animal testing: click here.

Want to take action?

Write to your local MP asking that they bring in funding for the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods so that it can re-open. You can look up your MP at this site: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en.

You can also write to The Honourable Marjorie Michel, Minister of Health at:

hcminister.ministresc@hc-sc.gc.ca

You can write to the office of the Prime Minister at:

https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/connect/contact

Thank you!