STOP VIVISECTION was born following numerous European citizens’ urge the European Commission to abrogate the directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and to present a new proposal that does away with animal experimentation.
From 1st April 2012 thanks to Citizens’ initiative, European citizens, with 1 million signatures, can take part in legislative decision making process of the European Union.
STOP VIVISECTION gives to citizens the possibility to say NO to animal experimentations.
Article 13 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union states that “the Union and the Member States shall, since animals are sentient beings, pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals”. The official acknowledgement, referred to therein, carries over the moral obligation to respect the fundamental rights of animals: the protection of those rights must be recognized as a European Union priority and must be guaranteed through the medium of a coherent legal framework at European level. Imposing pain and suffering to sentient and defenceless beings, animal experimentation (or vivisection) is, without a shadow of a doubt, to be considered as an intolerable practice.
Ethical reasons, shared by 86% of European citizens, as indicated in a 2006 Eurobarometer survey, are supported by scientists, claiming a lack of scientific validity in using “animal models” for assessing human health issues.
Animal experimentation can be considered a danger for human health and the environment, a brake on development of new methods in biomedical research, based on the most recent scientific achievements and an obstacle to tap into much more reliable, exhaustive, cheaper and faster responses, provided by new technologies expressly conceived for humans.
That is why European citizens urge the European Commission to abrogate the directive 2010/63/EU (on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes) and to present a new proposal geared to doing away with animal experimentation, by the compulsory use, in biomedical and toxicological research, of data specifically conceived for humans and not for animals.

Sign the online petition! http://www.stopvivisection.eu/

Elisa Norelli
OIPA International Campaigns Director
20 january 2013