Victory! European Respiratory Society Ends Invasive Animal Tests After PETA Push
For Immediate Release:
February 20, 2025
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
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.
“This is an enormous win that will spare animals from being mutilated and killed,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA thanks the European Respiratory Society for setting a strong example for other scientific organizations by embracing cutting-edge non-animal training offerings.”
The respiratory society has used piglets for its pediatric bronchoscopy course, during which animals likely had a tube inserted into their airways and tissue samples taken from their lungs. For a thoracoscopy course, trainees likely cut through the chest cavities of pigs and sheep and inserted surgical tools. Participants apparently practiced intubation for a rigid bronchoscopy course, placing stents and foreign body extractions on animals.
Sheep can distinguish between different expressions in humans and can detect changes in the faces of anxious sheep. Pigs are known to dream, recognize their own names, and lead social lives of a complexity previously observed only in primates.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
