Animal testing, a legal perspective - Jen Hochmuth [IARC2021]

Apart from the indisputable ethical questions that animal experiments raise, the scientific relevance of animal experiments is questionable time and again. In addition, many animal experiments are also a violation of the European Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes. EU law explicitly states that the use of animals for scientific or educational purposes should therefore only be considered where a non-animal alternative is unavailable and that use of animals for scientific procedures in other areas under the competence of the Union should be prohibited. The focus of this presentation is to illustrate case studies of animal experiments breaching EU law and discuss effective strategies to file legal complaints.

Jen Hochmuth left her home country Luxembourg to study marine biology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, as she was always fascinated by animals and the sea. Subsequently, she obtained a scholarship to study the combined effects of ocean acidification and fishing on rock lobsters at the University of Tasmania in Australia. In Belgium, she combined a PhD in environmental toxicology at Ghent University with working for the European Commission on scientific data collection in EU fisheries. After completing her degree, she volunteered at Wildtracks – a conservation organization in Belize, releasing injured and orphaned manatees and monkeys successfully back into the wild. In Belgium, she worked as an environmental toxicologist on the preparation of registration dossiers requiring chemical safety assessments in view of the EU REACH regulation. In January 2019, she started her current position with Animal Rights, an animal protection group active in the Netherlands and Belgium. She coordinates the campaigns "Replace Animal Testing" and "Animal Free Science" for Animal Rights Belgium.