Renato Werndli, co-chairman of the committee that launched the initiative: 'I don't understand why people didn't have more empathy for animals that continue to suffer. We tried to convince people with scientific facts but they didn’t believe us'.
KATY ROMY: Voters have clearly rejected a complete ban on experiments on living creatures in Switzerland. It is the fourth time the Swiss have thrown out this issue. An early projection published by the GfS institute showed that 79% of voters had said “No” on Sunday to a people’s initiative attempting to ban all experimentation on animals and humans, and to stop the import of any new products developed using such testing…
Supporters had wanted to halt tests, saying they are unethical and unnecessary, but ran into opposition from the country’s powerful pharmaceuticals lobby, which warned of the economic damage such a ban could cause… Campaigners for the initiative had argued that in addition to the suffering of animals, animal experiments often lead to dead ends and that there are proven alternatives and better ways to gain knowledge.
Renato Werndli, co-chairman of the committee that launched the initiative, said he was disappointed with Sunday’s result. “It’s a shame. Switzerland could have been the first country to ban animal testing,” he told Swiss public radio, RTS. “I don’t understand why people didn’t have more empathy for animals that continue to suffer,” he added. “We tried to convince people with scientific facts but they didn’t believe us”.
This was the fourth time that the Swiss have rejected people’s initiatives calling for animal testing bans; they had previously done so in 1985, 1992 and 1993. But the campaigners say they will not give up. “Animals cannot defend themselves – we cannot let them down,” said Werndli. He plans to revive the issue in a few years’ time. “We will meet tomorrow to plan the next initiative.”
During the campaign, public support for the initiative was very limited, and the initiative committee was unable to win the support of a single major political party or organisation. It was considered too extreme by parliament, which feared it would hamper medical and scientific research in Switzerland. It argued that current legislation, which only allows animal experiments if no alternative methods are available, is strict enough…
Approximately 556,000 animals were used for experimental purposes in Switzerland last year, according to the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office. The vast majority were mice (346,000), birds (66,000) and rats (52,000). The total figure represented a decrease of 18% compared with 2015, when the downhill trend started. SOURCE…
ALSO…
In a world-first vote, the electorate in Basel City in northern Switzerland has decided not to enshrine the basic rights of all non-human primates in the cantonal constitution. In a clear result… 74.7% of voters disagreed with the initiative, launched by the Sentience Politics group in 2016, which demanded an amendment to the constitution to guarantee “the right of non-human primates to and to physical and mental integrity”. Turnout was 51%.
In addition to the great apes (bonobos, chimpanzees, humans, gorillas and orangutans), primates also include baboons, macaques, ring-tailed lemurs, guenons, marmosets, lorises and lemurs. There are thought to be 300 to 500 primate species. Campaigners had pointed out that primates “have an enormously high sensitivity to pain, grieve for deceased acquaintances, feel compassion towards other animals and are able to plan ahead into the future”.
These abilities regularly become their fate, they said. “Because of their similarity to us humans, they are considered particularly attractive for biomedical research or are exhibited for observation and entertainment purposes. When they are no longer profitable or optimal care becomes more complicated, they can be euthanised without much hassle. Such practices are morally unjustifiable.”
The cantonal parliament in Basel City, home to one of Switzerland’s most popular zoos and the country’s pharmaceutical industry, had come out against the initiative. It argued that Switzerland’s animal protection law was already one of the strictest in the world and that the initiative wouldn’t improve the protection of primates living in the canton.
“Rather, it would dilute our fundamental and human rights and blur the line between humans and animals. The initiative also sends out a signal that could increasingly question the keeping of animals,” the authorities said. SOURCE…
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