New proposal would severely limit testing on monkeys

The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, has unanimously requested the Cabinet to limit the number of animal experiments with monkeys to an absolute minimum. All 20 parties in parliament signed a motion by Frank Wassenberg of the animal party PvdD calling for research into how the number of tests can further be reduced. In 2016, the Kamer also passed a similar motion unanimously.

The motion is mainly directed against the monkey testing center BPRC in Rijswijk, the largest in Europe. The center wants to reduce the number of tests involving monkeys to 150 in 2025. In 2019, presented the Cabinet with a plan on how to do this.

Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (Science) supported the motion during the debate on the education budget and is confident that the goal to reduce testing by 2025 will be achieved. He also plans to keep BPRC to its commitment.

Wassenberg has no confidence in this because he has not seen a clear downward trend in the number of tests over the past decade. In 2020, the company did 212 tests, dozens more than a year earlier. That was because of trials researching the coronavirus.

According to the motion, reducing the number of test tests on monkeys should not affect “strictly necessary” research into “life-threatening diseases.”