I have been very involved promoting animal protection since 1975 (the year I graduated with a DPhil in biochemistry). I started work for a small London charity (FRAME) promoting alternatives to animal research and have been amazed at the progress made since 1975. Back then, our annual budget was 8,000 GBP and our “big” victories involved having a letter published in one of the major newspapers (preferably The Telegraph—our founder was a Conservative).
Today, laboratory animal use in many major industrial countries (not Canada) has fallen by 50-75%, and the UK, the Netherlands, the USA and Australia have all produced government reports calling for major investment in NAMS (either New Approach Methods or Non-Animal Methods, depending on where you sit). Biomedical research became fixated on genetically modified mouse research models in the mid-1990s, but that fad has now given way to a new technology—“Organs-on-a-chip” often involving human cell cultures derived from stem cell culture.
Lab animal use peaked at around the same time for the USA, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland in the mid-1970s. Animal use began to fall as fast as it had risen post-WWII. The GMO mouse fad halted the decline in animal use but the decline is now again visible since 2015.
One sees similar very rapid change in the companion animal space. There are around 1 billion dogs in the world today—nearly all closely associated with humans (either as pets or as community street dogs). Dog neutering took off in the US in the mid-1970s and the euthanasia of dogs in US shelters (because they were surplus) has fallen from around 7 million a year to around 500,000 a year even though the US dog population has more than doubled since 1973. Globally, dog neutering is having similar beneficial impacts for both dog and human well-being.
I agree with Tucker that the farmed animal space could see very similar improvements in the next decade, especially given the EA interest in farmed animal well-being.
I have been very involved promoting animal protection since 1975 (the year I graduated with a DPhil in biochemistry). I started work for a small London charity (FRAME) promoting alternatives to animal research and have been amazed at the progress made since 1975. Back then, our annual budget was 8,000 GBP and our “big” victories involved having a letter published in one of the major newspapers (preferably The Telegraph—our founder was a Conservative).
Today, laboratory animal use in many major industrial countries (not Canada) has fallen by 50-75%, and the UK, the Netherlands, the USA and Australia have all produced government reports calling for major investment in NAMS (either New Approach Methods or Non-Animal Methods, depending on where you sit). Biomedical research became fixated on genetically modified mouse research models in the mid-1990s, but that fad has now given way to a new technology—“Organs-on-a-chip” often involving human cell cultures derived from stem cell culture.
Lab animal use peaked at around the same time for the USA, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland in the mid-1970s. Animal use began to fall as fast as it had risen post-WWII. The GMO mouse fad halted the decline in animal use but the decline is now again visible since 2015.
One sees similar very rapid change in the companion animal space. There are around 1 billion dogs in the world today—nearly all closely associated with humans (either as pets or as community street dogs). Dog neutering took off in the US in the mid-1970s and the euthanasia of dogs in US shelters (because they were surplus) has fallen from around 7 million a year to around 500,000 a year even though the US dog population has more than doubled since 1973. Globally, dog neutering is having similar beneficial impacts for both dog and human well-being.
I agree with Tucker that the farmed animal space could see very similar improvements in the next decade, especially given the EA interest in farmed animal well-being.
Andrew Rowan