Dear Friend,

We did it!

Five big initiatives from PETA have helped bring about a new era for animals in laboratories.

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which we've been collaborating with for years, made it official: It plans to end toxicity testing requirements on mammals by 2035. And with a little luck, it will happen sooner and include all animals.

It took almost two decades of work for us to reach this day, and here's how our science team—with your help and that of other committed PETA supporters—contributed to this groundbreaking progress:

• Our scientists, including molecular biologists and toxicologists, held dozens of meetings with other scientists and regulators, including EPA officials, to discuss how animals could be replaced in tests.
• We submitted detailed scientific comments revealing the problems with animal tests.
• We worked to change laws to restrict animal tests and put agency funding toward the development of non-animal test methods.
• We provided government and corporate scientists with educational opportunities to explore non-animal methods and coauthored scientific papers on the ways animal-free testing is superior to poisoning animals.
• We protested animal testing, even sending a giant "bunny" mascot to trail then–presidential candidate Al Gore—who listened and directed his staff to fund alternatives!

PETA's sustained and strategic work has now paid off! Today, our scientists and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine—which has done substantial work on this issue, too—had the honor of witnessing the EPA's historic announcement and the signing of the memo outlining the steps, including increased funding for the development of non-animal test methods, that the agency will take to accomplish its goal.

This breakthrough news follows an announcement by the Dutch government, with input by PETA and PETA U.K. scientists, that it would end animal testing by 2025. The decisions by the Netherlands and the EPA are a clear signal of an imminent worldwide end to regulatory toxicity testing on animals—a goal that seemed almost impossible when our work first began.

We're at the dawn of a new era in which toxicity tests will better protect humans and the environment—and millions of individual animals will no longer suffer in them. There's still a huge amount of work to be done, but today's EPA announcement is a milestone.

On behalf of all the PETA scientists who worked tirelessly to help achieve this, thank you for making such tremendous progress for animals possible.

Kind regards,


Amy J. Clippinger, Ph.D.
Director
Regulatory Testing Department