The aims of this consultation are two fold:

Who should participate

This consultation is addressed to any interested citizen and to experts in the field of animal experimentation.



It therefore contains two questionnaires, one for all interested citizens and one for experts in the area of animal welfare, animal testing, animal science, natural sciences (especially biology, medicine, pharmacology and toxicology), legal and economic affairs related to these areas. The Commission welcomes a broad participation. In the questionnaire for all citizens we are interested in receiving people's views about animal welfare. However, in the expert questionnaire, we are interested in facts, figures and expert feedback. It is therefore important that you choose the appropriate questionnaire to ensure that the questions are relevant to your interests and professional background.

Deadline for participation

This consultation will be open for 9 weeks following the day of its publication on the Commission web site. The closing date is 18 August 2006.

Your views matter

The replies to this consultation will help the Commission in its considerations regarding a revision of Directive 86/609/EEC, with the aim of improving animal welfare and the functioning of internal market in the field of animal experimentation. Once a proposal has been adopted by the Commission, it will be sent to the European Parliament and the Council to undergo the legislative procedure for adoption of the new Directive. This process will start in early 2007 and will most likely take at least two years to complete.



A summary table of the results of the consultation will be available on this website two months after the closure of the consultation.



The answers to the open questions in the expert questionnaire will be published on this website. Respondents can choose in the questionnaire whether they want the Commission to treat their names and contact details as confidential. If they do not ask for confidentiality, their names and contact details will be published alongside their responses. This ensures transparency and privacy while giving respondents a choice to make their views known in person.



Immediately after you have completed the questionnaire, you will receive a confirmation that your views have been registered in the Commission's database. You will not receive a further individual feedback on your views but we would encourage you to look at the overall results of the internet consultation which will be published on this website two months after the closure of the consultation.

Access to the questionnaires

You can access the questionnaires by clicking on the links below. You have the choice between two questionnaires:

1. Questionnaire for all interested citizens with general multiple choice questions in 20 languages which takes about 15-20 minutes to fill in. The Commission will take the replies into consideration in its preparation of a proposal to revise the existing legislation.

Link to the questionnaire :

This consultation is subject to European-wide Personal Data Protection rules. A Privacy Statement specifies how your data will be used.

Background information

Directive 86/609/EEC on the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes is the main piece of community legislation in place today to protect animals used in experiments and to avoid distortions of the internal market in this field.



The Directive seeks to improve the controls on the use of laboratory animals, sets minimum standards for housing and care as well as for the training of personnel handling animals and supervising the experiments. It also aims at reducing the numbers of animals used for experiments by requiring that an animal experiment should not be performed when an alternative method exists, and by generally encouraging the development and validation of alternative methods to replace animal methods.



The Directive was adopted in 1986 and has not been significantly changed since. However, the EU Treaty now formally recognises the welfare requirements of animals since 1997. The protocol on the protection and welfare of animals, annexed to the Treaty, provides that



"In formulating and implementing the Community's agriculture, transport, internal market and research policies, the Community and the Member States shall pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, while respecting the legislative or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States relating in particular to religious rites, cultural traditions and regional heritage."



In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that the Directive needs to be revised. The current Directive is open to interpretation and does not mirror important progress that has been made in science over the last two decades. New techniques have become available, such as use of transgenic animals, xeno-transplantation and cloning. These require specific attention, which the current Directive does not provide for nor is the use of animals with a higher degree of neurophysiologic sensitivity, such as in the case of non-human primates, specifically regulated.



The overall aim of the revision is to achieve harmonised, controlled use of animals in scientific procedures with transparent practices across all 25 member States. The Directive should ensure a level playing field within the EU for establishments carrying out procedures on animals taking into account animal welfare considerations on the one hand and the Community's desire to stay in the leading edge of research on the other. It should also reflect relevant developments since the adoption of the Directive in 1986, including the Protocol to the Treaty referred to above, as well as ethical and other relevant concerns.

-COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CRUELTY

A PETA investigation has revealed grotesque abuses to animals in laboratories at Columbia University, including subjecting baboons to invasive surgeries and leaving them to suffer and die in their cages without any painkillers.

We are calling on Columbia to end the cruel experiments, which have no practical value

Sign the petition here

-SLOVENIA IS ABOUT TO KILL AROUND 100 OF ITS BROWN BEARS

The Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning of Slovenia, Mr. Janez Podobnik, has issued a decree by which approximately 100 brown bears should be killed in 2006.

The Minister argues that there are too many bears in Slovenia and that the size of population of the animal has to be balanced with the environment.



In Slovenia, the brown bear is an endangered species, protected by the Endangered Species Act. The Minister's decision to decree the culling of the bear population - arguing overpopulation, no less - is therefore incomprehensible. How can there be >too many< bears if they are endangered

and accordingly protected by a number of legal acts, in Slovenia itself as well as internationally?

Besides, nature can be trusted to take care of overpopulation and ensure natural balance by itself - it is not necessary for man to do so. In many areas where hunting is outlawed (e.g. natural parks and reserves) there are no occurrences of natural imbalance. Human interfering with natural processes will only bring about even greater imbalance.

Even though the Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning is bound by the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia to ensure the preservation of the environment and natural habitats, he has decreed the killing of no less than 100 inhabitants of this country - for they are living beings and a

part of our natural wealth. Is the killing of bears consistent with preserving this natural wealth - or

is it about destroying it?

Even though any incitement to violence is unconstitutional, the Minister of the Environment himself has decreed the killing of living creatures, which will inflict immeasurable violence upon nature. And even though torture of animals is expressly forbidden by the Slovene constitution, the animals to be killed will be victims of immense suffering.

Furthermore, Slovenia already has a strategy of brown bear population management. It was adopted by the government and it provides for many non-violent means which could be used in this case, without having to resort to killing. In light of this Strategy, the Minister's decision to order the killing of bears, instead of managing their population by other means available, is even more incomprehensible and unacceptable.

Stanko Valpatiè, President

The Society for the Rights and the Liberation of Animals

Sign here

-HELP STOP "CRUELTY 101"

Ohio State University is offering a course that some have termed "Cruelty 101."

Ohio State University (OSU) is hosting a course that many physicians are calling a pointless exercise in cruelty. Nicknamed "Cruelty 101," the course attempts to instruct students in spinal cord injury research methods. Unfortunately, students will not be focusing on the research techniques without animals. Throughout the course, students will be taught how to break or otherwise injure the spinal cords of nearly 270 mice and rats and perform other diagnostic, behavioral, and invasive procedures. The students are trained to use an impactor device specifically designed for breaking the spinal cords of small animals. After the animals' skin, muscle tissue, and bone surrounding the spinal cord are peeled away, the impactor drops a weight on the animals' spinal cord that, to a human, is the equivalent of a seven-pound weight. The force of impact varies with each experiment.

Post-procedure pain, as you can imagine, could be unbearable for the injured animals.

Due to their small size, lack of facial expressions, and high-frequency pain and distress calls, the animals' pain could go unnoticed. The animals are only checked for pain every 12 hours.

What's more, this course will do nothing to help spinal cord injury patients.

Go here for this one.

Thank you!