PETA Scientists: NIH Stacks Deck Against Non-Animal Experiments
PETA scientists have proven that the deck is stacked in favor of animal experimentation. A new analysis shows that those who decide which research projects should be funded are mostly animal experimenters. This clear bias stymies kinder and more effective non-animal research.
In the first-of-its-kind study, “Predominance of animal-based expertise may bias NIH neuroscience grant review: A pilot study with implications for non-animal methodologies,” PETA neuroscientists Dr. Emily Trunnell and Dr. Katherine Roe reveal that animal experimenters are overly represented on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) committees tasked with reviewing and awarding neuroscience research grants, which strongly correlates with far more money going to experiments on animals.
The just-published analysis shows that this over-representation of animal experimenters on these review committees leads to more animal experimentation being funded. Of the 562 funded neuroscience grants that ended up getting the green light, 72 percent proposed using animals. And more than 83 percent of the neuroscience funding—totaling $246,193,068—was awarded to projects that included animal experiments..
The study reveals just 16 percent of funded grants proposed non-animal methods, and 12 percent proposed human research. Studies using non-animal methods alone or in combination with human studies accounted for just 8 percent of agency funding for the type of research examined.
This clear bias against non-animal testing methods harms early-career researchers. The demonstrated impression that using animals is the only way to advance in their careers and advance science may cause them to abandon non-animal methods altogether. This is despite studies showing that 90% of all basic research—mostly involving animals—fails to lead to treatments for humans.
Beating the Bias
Mitigating the damage from this animal experimentation bias requires new steps. Dr. Trunnell and Dr. Roe recommend that funders, including NIH:
- Conduct internal reviews assessing bias.
- Bolster non-animal methods expertise in reviewer pools.
- Create non-animal methods-specific funding streams.
- Encourage applicants to report incidences of animal methods bias during grant review.
- Consult the Coalition to Illuminate and Address Animal Methods Bias (COLAAB, www.animalmethodsbias.org), an international collaboration of researchers and advocates, as it develops strategies to assess and mitigate animal methods bias in grant funding.
- Foster transparency and meta-research by ensuring that publicly available grant summaries include the methods proposed in the research.
- Facilitate meta-research on unfunded grants.
What You Can Do
PETA scientists have also developed a clear, commonsense roadmap to guide research away from experiments on animals. Research Modernization Now provides a comprehensive strategy for replacing experiments on animals with superior, non-animal methods. It’s a strategy that can, and should, start NOW.
If you’re in the U.S., please TAKE ACTION to support PETA’s Research Modernization Now:
And everyone can watch The Failed Experiment, the new docuseries from PETA and executive producer Bill Maher that exposes what most people don’t know about experiments on animals:
