‘The New Gold Standard’ Takes Viewers Inside the Revolution in Medical Research Already Underway
Tests on animals have long failed humans. While experimenters torment living, feeling individuals in laboratories, they delay treatments, produce unreliable results, and waste staggering amounts of money. It’s no wonder so many patients have lost faith in institutions that are supposed to help us.
But change is happening. And The New Gold Standard: Cutting Edge Science That’s Replacing Animal Testing, a new feature documentary narrated and executive produced by award-winning actor and PETA Honorary Director Edie Falco—and featuring PETA scientists—shows that advanced, compassionate research isn’t a pipe dream—it’s already here. It takes audiences inside some of the world’s leading research institutions and laboratories to examine how human-based research technologies are reshaping how medicines are discovered, tested, and approved.
A Scientific Revolution Already Underway
Produced and directed by Emmy Award–winning filmmaker Steven Latham, the documentary brings viewers into Harvard University, Stanford University, and other leading institutions where researchers are actively replacing tests on animals with human‑relevant scientific methods. Alongside leading scientists, policymakers, and industry experts, PETA scientists Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D., and Lisa Jones-Engel, Ph.D., help explain why these cutting-edge technologies deliver more accurate, more predictive, and more human-relevant insights—and they’re already transforming the medical research landscape.
A new gold standard is here.
The Research System Is Under Pressure—and Changing Fast
The film arrives at a moment when governments, regulators, and industry leaders are rethinking the future of biomedical research. Public trust is strained, scientific evidence is mounting, and tests on animals have repeatedly been shown to be cruel and ineffective.
Through interviews with Senator Cory Booker, Senator Rand Paul, NIH scientist Dr. Nicole Kleinstreuer, pharmaceutical executives, and leading academic researchers, the documentary examines the scientific, regulatory, ethical, and economic forces driving this shift.
Human Stories That Reveal the Truth Behind the Science
The film doesn’t stay in the lab. It steps into the lives of people directly affected by the system.
Audiences meet a veterinarian who formerly worked inside a primate research facility, as well as Melanie D. G. Kaplan, who authored Lab Dog, about the beagle she adopted who once suffered in a laboratory—both of whom witnessed the psychological and physical harm of experiments on animals firsthand.
The documentary also visits sanctuaries in Wyoming and Oklahoma that care for dogs, cats, pigs, and monkeys rescued from laboratories.
A Scale Most Americans Never See
The film confronts a reality hidden from public view: Each year, U.S. laboratories use or confine:
- 42,000 dogs
- 106,000 monkeys
- Millions of cats, pigs, rabbits, and other animals, including an estimated 100 million mice and rats
Most Americans never hear these numbers. These animals aren’t statistics. They are emotional, complex individuals who, just like humans, experience pain and fear.
Their Lives Matter
The New Gold Standard underscores what we’ve been saying all along: No one is a test subject. Monkeys form deep bonds and live in complex social groups. Pigs dream when they sleep. Mice and rats love to cuddle and build nests together. All of these individuals value their lives, and they don’t belong in laboratory cages.
A Documentary Built on Integrity—and Hope
Steven Latham Productions brings decades of award‑winning science storytelling to this project, with previous work for PBS, NOVA, and Netflix, including The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses, TED: The Future We Will Create, and the acclaimed series Shelter Me.
Their approach blends investigative rigor with deeply human storytelling, making The New Gold Standard both informative and emotionally resonant. It’s a message everyone needs to hear.
Where to Watch The New Gold Standard
The New Gold Standard will be showing in select theaters this summer and will be available for streaming this fall.
More information:
Take Action for Research Modernization
The film shows us that animal‑free research is the best way forward. YOU can help us push for it by supporting PETA’s Modernize Research NOW initiative.
