Every year unnecessary amounts of laboratory animals die on the campus of Nijmegen. At least that’s the opinion of the Vegan Student Association of Nijmegen, who organised a protest march across campus today. The protest is garnering support from the student and workers council.

Secretary of the Vegan Student Association (VSA) and one of the organisers of the protest, Allan Bouman, says that ’More than 8000 lab-animals are coming to die in the university’s laboratories every year’.

The eight-thousand figure is based on numbers from the Central Animal Laboratory itself. ‘It’s not ethically justifiable that so many helpless animals are being killed.’ Alongside this point, according to Bouman, is the fact that research with animal testing hasn’t always provided reliable results.

‘It breaks with policy to reduce the amount of Animal-tests’

For this reason, the VSA protests today, on World Animal Testing Day. Activists gathered at the beginning of the afternoon at the Central Animal Laboratory to start their march to the Berchmanianum, where the University Board sits. On their placards read slogans like ‘Imagine being cut open alive’ and ‘Pain = pain, no matter how small you are.’

As a progressive research institution, the university must set an example and put an end to the large amount of animals being tested, Boumans thinks. ‘The main issue for us is that it breaks with policy to decrease the total number of animal tests on campus.’

Participation Council

The university’s student council has also noticed the break with policy. The student party Green+, together with the Workers Council FNV submitted questions to the University’s Board. The party has also collaborated with colleagues from AKKU, writing a petition that has been signed by all members of the Participation Council and which will be discussed during the University’s Joint Meeting on the 13th of May with the University Board.

One of the aims of the meeting will be to create a strategy in which it ‘will become clear which steps will be taken to reduce animal testing and move to more innovative animal-free testing’. That is the cause of the current disagreement, says Rebecca van Eijden of Green+. She knows the university is already committed to a national goal of decreasing animal testing overall. ‘And that is very good, but there is no clear strategy on how that is to be done at the moment.’

Centre of experts

A centre of experts should be created to help with finding out how this should be done. ‘The animal lab only gets money to facilitate animal testing,’ said Works Council president and FNV member Amarins Thiecke. Van Eijden adds to this, saying that ‘you would like the lab to make itself redundant in the future. A centre of experts can help with that.’

There are plenty of other alternatives to animal testing, Thieke highlights. ‘You can work with organs, human cells or test on humans instead of animals – of course with consent, or through the use of computer models.’

‘We also understand that there won’t be an off-the-shelf plan within a few weeks,’ Thieke concedes. ‘But in this way, we keep attention on the University’s Board members. They are ultimately responsible.’

Boumans shares the same thoughts. Conversations about the direction of laboratories and petitions don’t produce the changes wanted. For this reason, on World Animal Testing Day, he has decided to keep asking for solutions to the problem.

Translated by Nick Fidler