PETA Wins! The Taiwan FDA Prevents Cruel Arthritis Tests on Animals
Update (July 3, 2025): Victory! Animals won’t be used in cruel arthritis experiments conducted by companies wanting to make dubious joint-protection health claims in order to market their food or beverage products in Taiwan.
Today, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration finalized its joint-protection health claim regulation and permanently removed animal testing as an option for companies attempting to establish such claims for marketing foods in Taiwan. The welcome move comes after the agency received the following:
• PETA’s detailed scientific critique
• E-mails and petitions from more than 125,000 supporters of PETA, PETA Asia, and Kindness to Animals, our partner organization in Taiwan
• A powerful letter from actor and PETA supporter Maggie Q
• A joint statement from four major science organizations
• A demonstration and petition delivery by Kindness to Animals, including a joint statement from more than 100 Taiwanese scientists and health experts
Now, joint-protection health claims for marketing foods must be based solely on safe and effective human studies.
“The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration did the right thing in preventing the mutilation and torment of vulnerable animals for the sake of joint-protection food-marketing claims. PETA celebrates this win for rats and tells companies experimenting on animals to take note and move to human-relevant research.” —PETA Vice President Shalin Gala
But we need your help to persuade major food and beverage companies in Taiwan to end horrific experiments on animals conducted in attempts to establish other human-health claims for marketing their products. Collectively, these companies have force-fed, electroshocked, drowned, starved, bled, poisoned, dissected, and/or killed more than 8,000 animals in such tests over the past two decades.
Take action here.
Original post:
The Taiwanese government is on the cusp of finally and compassionately doing away with a gruesome test on rats to support dubious anti-arthritis claims for food and beverage products sold in Taiwan. We’d like all PETA supporters to please show your support for getting rid of this pointless and deadly test.
The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) currently recommends that food and beverage companies perform experiments on rats. Specifically, the TFDA recommends that experimenters inject chemicals into the joints of adolescent rats or to sever their joint tissue surgically to induce painful osteoarthritis, after which the rats would be starved for 12 hours and then killed and dissected. Pain relief would be intentionally withheld so as not to mask their pain and interfere with the results.
That’s about to change.
Following years of pressure from PETA, the TFDA has announced a revised draft of this regulation that doesn’t require or recommend any animal experimentation and that would spare countless animals. It is a compassionate step in the right direction and would represent another huge win for animals.
But the regulation isn’t finalized yet. The agency is accepting public comments through April 13, 2025. A short letter of support from you could help ensure that no additional animals suffer and die to make food and beverage companies more money.
Your Support Makes Positive Change
Pressure from PETA has helped ensure numerous other wins for animals in Taiwan: Scores of vulnerable animals no longer are drowned or electroshocked, bred to develop hypertension, fed sugar and bacteria to develop dental decay, or fed an iron-deficient diet to develop anemia in order for companies to make anti-fatigue, blood pressure–lowering, teeth health, or blood iron related health claims for food and beverages, and the TFDA now prioritizes internationally recognized, non-animal tests to assess food safety.
PETA is leading a global trend against animal testing after persuading dozens of food and beverage companies, including some major companies in Taiwan, to end (or commit to never starting) experiments on animals.
