Taiwan Adopts World’s Toughest Laboratory Regulations

After hearing from PETA and over 21,000 supporters, Taiwan adopted some of the world’s strongest enforcement measures for laboratories that experiment on animals, allowing authorities to halt approvals for new experiments at facilities that fail animal welfare inspections until violations are corrected. Under the new rules, laboratories that fail those inspections will face increased scrutiny from authorities, and approvals for new experiments will stop until the problems are corrected. Facilities that continue to fall short during subsequent inspections could also see their chances of receiving government grants drop sharply. PETA, along with other animal protection groups, had urged Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture to adopt and enforce these stronger protections for animals used in experiments. PETA also submitted formal comments supporting the rule changes and encouraging the government to hold laboratories accountable for animal welfare violations.