The Animal Justice Party (AJP) will seek to rapidly phase out animal experimentation throughout Australia because it is cruel, outdated and ineffective. We must urgently stop funding animal experimentation and transition towards effective alternatives.

The AJP recognises new frameworks for research focused on animal wellbeing and where animals are considered participants. This means that research is done for the benefit of the animal participant themselves. This is similar to human-based research frameworks, where someone participates in research that may alleviate their own suffering. The AJP supports this form of research which respects animals’ agency, individual lives, and is intended to directly benefit the animal participating in the research.

Key Objectives

1. Develop a national plan for phasing out animal experimentation, including milestones and an end date.

2. Develop an approach beyond the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) towards best practice, animal wellbeing focused research.

3. Immediately ban particularly cruel research, including but not limited to, forced swim tests, forced smoking tests, Draize tests, LD50, poison bait experiments, xenotransplantation and primate research.

4. Cease state and federal government funding of animal experimentation, and establish a national fund for the development of non-animal methods (NAMs). This will include grants to upskill researchers in NAMs.

5. Introduce a public register of all animal research projects and mandate prospective registration of animal studies. Mandatory pre-registration of animal studies will allow experts to advise on available NAMs and also stamp out publication bias.

6. Require animal ethics committees to release the methods and outcome summaries of animal research projects and make these available to the public. A summary should at least describe in plain English the aim of the study, procedures animals have been subjected to, the number and species of animals, the outcomes of the study and the funding.

7. Require states and territories to collect and publish data on animal research in a way that allows for compilation of a nationally consistent data set.

8. Update the definition of ‘animal’ used by research to include all sentient beings.

9. Introduce mandatory rehoming of animals used in experimentation, and provide financial support to organisations who rehome them