Toward Transparency on Animal Experimentation in Switzerland: Seven Recommendations for the Provision of Public Information in Swiss Law.

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Version: Final published version
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_9156EE5B636B
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Toward Transparency on Animal Experimentation in Switzerland: Seven Recommendations for the Provision of Public Information in Swiss Law.
Journal
Animals
Author(s)
Lüthi N., Rodriguez Perez C., Persson K., Elger B.S., Shaw D.
ISSN
2076-2615 (Print)
ISSN-L
2076-2615
Publication state
Published
Issued date
24/07/2024
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
14
Number
15
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: epublish
Abstract
In Switzerland, the importance of transparency in animal experimentation is emphasized by the Swiss Federal Council, recognizing the public's great interest in this matter. Federal reporting on animal experimentation indicates a total of 585,991 animals used in experiments in Switzerland in 2022. By Swiss law, the report enables the public to learn about many aspects such as the species and degree of suffering experienced by the animals, but some information of interest to the public is missing, such as the fate of the animals at the end of the experiment (e.g., euthanized, rehomed in a private home, reused in another experiment). When it comes to animals bred in facilities but not used in experiments, further information of interest is not required to be made public according to Swiss law, for example, the number and fate of "surplus" animals (i.e., animals bred but not used in experiments for a variety of reasons such as not carrying the phenotypical properties needed). Considering that the Swiss government has a duty to provide a full accounting of animal experimentation conducted on the public's behalf, further relevant information should be disclosed. While efforts toward transparency, such as the STAAR Agreement, have been made in the scientific community, these mostly reflect the legal requirements already in force. If Switzerland is to move toward more transparency in public information on animal experimentation, an update of the legal requirements is needed. In this article, we give recommendations for Swiss law to move toward more transparency in public information on seven aspects: (1) the fate of the animals at the end of the experiment; (2) the sources of funding for animal experimentation; (3) the harm-benefit analysis performed by researchers and ethics committees to justify an experiment using animals; (4) the number of breeding/surplus animals; (5) the fate of breeding/surplus animals; (6) the harms experienced by animals in facilities; and (7) the funding of animal facilities.
Keywords
Swiss law, animal experimentation, animal welfare law, surplus animals, transparency
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
20/12/2024 13:45
Last modification date
25/02/2025 8:16
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