World’s Largest Science Fair Bans Deadly Animal Tests

May 2012

After more than five years of discussions between PETA, the Intel Corporation, and the Society for Science & the Public (SSP)—which oversees the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the largest global pre-collegiate science fair—the SSP has banned all student experiments in which any vertebrate animals die or are intentionally killed. Prior to this policy, the Intel ISEF permitted students to participate in experiments that killed as many as 30 percent of the vertebrate animals involved, likely resulting in the death of thousands of animals each year in the affiliated regional science fairs around the world leading up to the Intel ISEF finals. SSP’s decision follows its 2010 adoption of a formal statement in strong support of non-animal research methods, which it adopted at PETA’s request.