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Swiss to vote again on banning animal testing

Animal experimentation: the initiative calling for an end to animal experimentation is successful
Animal experimentation: the initiative calling for an end to animal experimentation is successful Keystone-SDA

The people's initiative for a future without animal experiments in Switzerland has passed the 100,000 mark in certified signatures, the association behind it said on Monday.

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More than 100,000 signatures had been collected by the end of last week in support of the initiative, according to a press release issued by the Community of Interest for the Initiative for the Prohibition of Animal Experiments in Switzerland. They must be formally submitted to the Federal Chancellery by mid-November, the initiative committee said.

Sufficient surplus signatures will still be collected by then, in case the Federal Chancellery checks the signatures more strictly, following the discovery of falsifications during previous collection campaigns, the initiative committee added.

+ Swiss voters reject ban on animal experiments

The popular initiative calls for an amendment to the Federal Constitution to ban animal experiments, as well as the breeding and trade of animals intended for such experiments. Since 1985, the people have rejected four popular initiatives aimed at banning animal experimentation to varying degrees, the most recent in 2022 by over 80%.

In 2022, the number of animals used in experiments rose to almost 586,000, an increase of 2%; those used for experiments that cause significant pain were also up, by 5%, notably for research into cancer and neurocognitive diseases.

Translated from French by DeepL/jdp

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