The European Respiratory Society Ends Live Animal Use After PETA Push

After negotiations with PETA, the European Respiratory Society—Europe’s largest scientific and clinical organization in respiratory medicine—confirmed it will stop using live animals in its medical training courses and is committed to transitioning to high-tech human-relevant models and simulators. The respiratory society has used piglets for its pediatric bronchoscopy course, during which animals had a tube inserted into their airways and tissue samples taken from their lungs. For a thoracoscopy course, trainees cut through the chest cavities of pigs and sheep and inserted surgical tools. Participants practiced intubation for a rigid bronchoscopy course, placing stents and foreign body extractions on animals.