Dozens of Dutch doctors, academics and experts, including four from Maastricht, have called for an end to animal testing in an open letter.
In the letter that is full-page in De Volkskrant, they call on the cabinet, and especially Minister Staghouwer of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, to ‘make a national action plan to end animal testing’. The signatories would also like to see the Netherlands take on a leading role in the EU in the field of animal testing-free innovation.
obsolete
Professor of sustainable development Pim Martens, who works at Maastricht University, tells L1 about the establishment of the initiative: “The point is that we use an enormous number of laboratory animals in the Netherlands every year. For research but also for education, as far as I’m concerned that is the case. really outdated to a large extent.”
University of Maastricht
Martens works at Maastricht University and that university still uses thousands of rodents for research every year. “I have already spoken out regularly. There are now plans for new laboratory animal facilities, but they are at odds with developments that are underway.” The professor mentions the University of Utrecht as an example, which, according to him, has already come a long way in innovation in laboratory animals.
Solutions
According to Martens, there are now enough alternatives, but too little is being done from the government. On L1 Radio Martens talks about possible solutions. “We have to think about it differently. In many cases, laboratory animals are no longer the best way, where you could now do just as well, better or comparable research.” Animal testing is also said to be mainly an ‘old’ method, which has always been used out of habit: “That has of course been no longer necessary for a long time.”
After the appeal in the newspaper, the academics have not yet received a response from the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.