European Union
Lab animals will be less vulnerable
9 September 2010
Presseurop
Die Tageszeitung 
Die Tageszeitung, 9 September 2010
"EU to save puppies," headlines a not un-ironic Tageszeitung. On 8 September, the European parliament approved a new directive for the protection of laboratory animals that will replace a previous text dating from 1986. Animal experiments will only be permitted in the interest of research on human beings, animals and diseases, and only if there is no alternative method approved by the EU. In the vote in parliament, the Christian democrats did not support a Green proposal in favour of experiments on human stem cells, notes the Berlin daily. Every year, 12.2 millions animals are subjected to experiments in 1300 laboratories throughout the EU.
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