Animal rights activists from the public organization URSA demand that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, ban the use of animals for scientific experiments and practical classes in the country's educational institutions.
The corresponding petition, registered on the website of the President of Ukraine, gained more than 1.5 thousand votes out of the required 25 thousand in two days.
The petition suggests replacing animal experiments with alternative and modern research methods, including computer models and cellular analyses.
"Every year, more than 150 million animals die in laboratories during scientific experiments and tests around the world," the petition says.
In the appeal, it was noted that animal studies are outdated. Animals during scientific experiments are often subjected to painful and stressful procedures. They are electrocuted, poisoned with chemicals, parts of their bodies are removed, and they are deprived of food and water.
The author of the petition and a member of URSA Marina Ivaniusko emphasized that these procedures not only cause enormous suffering to the animals, but also do not produce reliable results, as the physiology and behavior of an animal can be very different from that of a human. And outdated methods of exploitation of animals are directly related to their cruel treatment.
“As a society, we have a moral and ethical obligation to treat all living beings with compassion and respect. And subjecting animals to cruel and inhumane forms of experiments for the sake of the human being contradicts these principles," she emphasized.
Ivaniusko added that in addition to the ethical aspect of research on animals, there is also an economic one. After all, taxpayers pay for the maintenance of laboratory animals.
It is noted that a number of developed countries, in particular Great Britain, Norway, Canada, the USA, etc., are abandoning non-modern methods of using animals for scientific purposes.
"We can help put an end to the unnecessary suffering of animals and contribute to the creation of a more humane and conscious society in which ethical treatment of animals prevails," she emphasized. Ivaniusko
As EcoPolitic reported earlier, in Kyiv, a teacher from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the National University of Bioresources and Nature Management (NUBiP) was accused of torturing animals during practical classes. He demonstrated on a live rabbit the mechanisms of reflex respiratory arrest under the influence of ammonia without anesthesia.
