On 10 September 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed a directive that prioritizes efforts to reduce animal testing. The memorandum calls for the agency to:
- Reduce its requests for, and funding of, mammal studies by 30% by 2025, and
- Eliminate all mammal study requests and funding by 2035.
The move, which is eliciting strong reactions from groups supporting and opposing experiments on animals, makes the EPA the first federal agency to put a hard deadline on phasing out animal research. Administrator Wheeler also announced $4.25 million in funding to five universities to research the development and use of alternative test methods and strategies that reduce, refine, and/or replace vertebrate animal testing.
For more information:
https://www.epa.gov/research/efforts-reduce-animal-testing-epa