Well done PETA and Dutch Government: Holland to end Animal Testing and Thousands of Animals Spared!

I hope all is well with you. Thank you for your recent gift. Sometimes it's nice to let one's imagination travel to the future and see what a kinder world for animals might look like. Even more enjoyable is knowing that your support of PETA's work is helping to create that kinder future.

Picture this scenario: A political candidate is making campaign promises. You hear the usual tropes: "I promise to lower taxes. I promise to create jobs." You yawn because you've heard it all before, but then you hear this: "I promise to end all experiments on animals."


Does this sound like the opening of a futuristic novel? Well, in the Netherlands, it's actually happening—with the help of PETA and our international affiliates. It's true: The Dutch government is working to end all animal experimentation in the country by 2025, with the goal of using only humane, non-animal testing methods.

Staff members from PETA Netherlands and PETA U.K. were recently invited to The Hague to meet with officials about specific ways to replace animal experiments. Subsequently, our affiliates submitted an extensive dossier of information—prepared with the help of PETA's scientists in the U.S.—to guide the Dutch government's transition to non-animal testing.

PETA will do everything possible to use this momentum to move the U.S. and other countries closer to a day when cutting up, drugging, poisoning, shooting, burning, and electrocuting animals are relegated to the pages of history.

We're already making major strides toward this goal every day, like when we helped an overseas personal care product company push back against a government agency that ordered it to test its products on animals.

The owner contacted PETA after a regulatory agency said that it had to conduct skin and eye irritation and sensitization tests on animals. In these experiments, workers smear chemicals into the eyes or onto the skin of mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, and other animals, often causing painful swelling and burns.

With PETA's help, the company sent the government agency information about effective, reliable non-animal test methods and urged it to accept those results. The agency recently agreed, and at least 35 animals were saved from painful experiments.

In an even bigger victory, the lives of as many as 9,000 rats, mice, and rabbits have been spared because manufacturers opted not to test 19 ingredients in antiseptic washes that were the subject of a 2013 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed rule. As a result, the agency found that these ingredients are not safe and effective and that products containing them can no longer be marketed.

The FDA made its decision after considering PETA's public comments on ways to avoid the tests, including first establishing whether the ingredients in liquid hand soaps, bar soaps, and body washes—which are often labeled "antibacterial" and intended for use with water—are really any more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of infection.

The agency had originally called for at least 25 animal tests on 22 ingredients, including for cancer and reproductive effects. The tests would have involved force-feeding the substances to rats, mice, and rabbits, or applying them to their skin, then killing and dissecting the animals and their babies.

With PETA's scientists hard at work, an end to animal experiments is in sight. And with caring supporters like you fueling our work, we're getting closer to that goal every day. Thank you so much for your loyalty, generosity, and compassion.

With kind regards,