The University of Washington has been using animals as unconsenting test subjects for far too long. Not only are these animals tortured and neglected, our tax dollars and tuition are paying for it. We, as students and members of the community, deserve a say.

A 2015 study published in the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare and Ethics found that “92 percent of drugs that pass preclinical tests, including “pivotal” animal tests, fail to proceed to the market. More recent analysis suggests that...the failure rate has actually increased and is now closer to 96 percent.” Studies by the National Institute of Health (NIH), The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and many others found very similar results.

As a school with highly reputable STEM programs, we cannot continue to perform obsolete scientific methods of research. Animal testing is unreliable, expensive, time consuming, and cruel. The University of Washington should be investing their money into the many cheaper, faster, and more efficacious alternatives now available.

Even if the testing done on these animals was translatable to humans, it would not excuse the killing, abuse, and outright neglect that dogs, rabbits, primates, pigs, sheep, gerbils, bobcats, ferrets, mice, rats, and other animals suffer via the Washington National Primate Research Center.

The welfare of these animals is overseen by a committee that does not show concern for their lives. Just as other universities, like Harvard, have reduced their animal testing labs, the University of Washington should do the same! 

Footage from inside the Washington National Primate Research Center