Activists in Indianapolis delivered 120,000 petitions to Eli Lilly’s headquarters, demanding a ban on the cruel near-drowning test on small animals. PETA
The UK government has made a commitment to stop granting licenses for the controversial Forced Swim Test, effective after current licenses expire in 2028. This is a huge win for animal welfare, in no small measure due to the pressure from PETA UK, and over 40,000 supporters of PETA's campaign.
The Forced Swim Test is a method in which rats and mice are forced to swim until they are exhausted, by putting them into a small container of water from which they cannot escape. It was long used to test the potential of pharmaceutical drugs for treating depression, but has been widely denounced as both scientifically outdated and reprehensibly cruel. The animal's experience of stress and suffering from prolonged swimming is inarguable, and after the test, animals are generally euthanized, despite there being increased scientific agreement that no useful data is yielded through the test.
Few leading pharmaceutical companies currently support the Forced Swim Test, including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Sanofi.
This is a start, but it is not the end. Real progress will only be made when all animal testing that leads to unnecessary suffering is no longer permitted. But, for now, it's a positive indication that we can be both humane and scientific, and change is possible.
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