PETA, animal rights groups praise Trump admin for bucking animal testing

The Trump administration has recently made significant strides in ending animal testing within programs at the FDA and EPA, receiving an outpouring of support from animal advocacy groups, lawmakers, and others. This move has been met with praise from organizations like PETA, who have long advocated for the replacement of animal testing with more human-relevant testing strategies.

Kathy Guillermo, PETA’s senior vice president, commended the FDA for its decision to adopt human-relevant testing strategies for evaluating antibody therapies. This shift away from animal testing towards testing on materials that mimic human organs is seen as a significant step towards meeting the agency’s commitment to replace the use of animals in testing.

FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary emphasized the importance of leveraging AI-based computational modeling, human organ model-based lab testing, and real-world human data to get safer treatments to patients faster and more reliably. This move is not only a win for public health but also for ethics, as it marks a paradigm shift in drug evaluation that holds promise to accelerate cures and meaningful treatments for Americans while reducing animal use.

Similarly, the EPA under the Trump administration has reinstated a policy to phase out animal testing, with a commitment to reducing testing on mammals by 30% by 2025 and eliminating it completely by 2035. This move has been praised by animal rights groups like the White Coat Waste Project, who have been working towards cutting wasteful and cruel animal testing at federal agencies.

While some groups warn that there is not yet a high-tech replacement for animals in biomedical research and drug testing, others like the National Association for Biomedical Research stress the importance of humane animal testing to test prospective drugs for humans. They emphasize that no AI model or simulation has yet fully replicated all the unknowns about many biological systems, making humane animal research indispensable.

Overall, the Trump administration’s recent announcements to end animal testing have been met with widespread support from animal advocacy groups, lawmakers, and others. By phasing out animal testing in favor of more human-relevant testing strategies, these agencies are taking a significant step towards reducing animal cruelty and advancing public health.