In 2017, 740,000 animals died in Germany for science, about two million were used during this period for research as experimental animals. This statistic comes from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). Figures for 2018 are not yet available.
If it is up to the will of the responsible EU Commission, Germany has to improve the subject of animal experiments. The Commission complained because EU law was not respected.
Therefore, the federal government wants to reform the legal requirements for animal testing in Germany, reports the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung". So you want to avert a lawsuit in the European Court. According to the newspaper admit that EU provisions were "not sufficiently clear" been implemented.
However, according to the report, the Confederation asks the Commission for more time because the reform must go through the legislative process. By November 2020, however, the changes should come into force. Initial drafts have already been submitted by the responsible Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
The EU Commission had already initiated infringement proceedings against Germany in the summer of 2018 because from an Brussels perspective EU animal testing requirements are not sufficiently anchored in German law. It is about the use of monkeys in experiments or evidence of the expertise of researchers involved.
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According to EU directives, monkeys used for experiments are descendants of captive primates. This was not clear enough in the legal text, complained Brussels.
In recent years, the number of laboratory animals has decreased. In 2014, it was still 3.3 million animals (see chart). The values can not be reconciled further into the past as the registration system was changed between 2013 and 2014.
Most commonly, scientists used mice, a total of 1.37 million animals. That corresponds to nearly 50 percent of the experimental animals. In addition came 255,000 rats and 240,000 fish and 3300 dogs and 718 cats. Significantly increased the number of monkeys used was: Last year, it was 3472 animals, in 2016, there were still 2462. Even if looking for alternatives: That in the researchers in the foreseeable future, no more experimental animals are used, experts consider unrealistic.
