PETA's most visible anti-animal experimentation campaigns have focused on stopping the use of animals in cosmetics laboratories, agricultural research, dog and cat food trials, weapons tests, aerospace studies, and car-crash simulations. We've had tremendous victories in these campaigns and ensured that millions of animals have been spared from suffering and death in experiments.
PETA's most visible anti-animal experimentation campaigns have focused on stopping the use of animals in cosmetics laboratories, agricultural research, dog and cat food trials, weapons tests, aerospace studies, and car-crash simulations. We've had tremendous victories in these campaigns and ensured that millions of animals have been spared from suffering and death in experiments.
But one area of animal experimentation uses so many animals that it eclipses all the aforementioned categories combined: regulatory testing.
Regulatory agencies in the U.S.—including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration—as well as regulatory agencies in the European Union and elsewhere in the world require chemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and many other products to be tested for toxicity. Animals are forced to ingest or inhale—or are injected with—toxic substances, such as gasoline components and mercury. Animals used in these tests suffer extreme pain before they are killed, dissected, and thrown away like garbage.
All the more upsetting is the fact that many of these tests could easily be replaced with more sophisticated, more accurate, and less expensive non-animal alternatives.
Until the late 1990s, most animal protection groups avoided targeting this area of animal testing because few had the scientific expertise to deal with the enormous range of federally regulated substances.
This changed when Jessica Sandler—now the director of PETA's Regulatory Testing Division—joined PETA's staff in 1998.
Before coming to PETA, Jessica worked as a specialist in biological and chemical hazards for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey, having completed her master's degree in environmental health science.
Because of her scientific expertise—as well as her knowledge of the federal regulatory process—Jessica was the perfect person to lead the negotiations with the White House and the EPA, and she succeeded in greatly reducing the number of animals slated to be used in the EPA's high production volume chemical-testing program—by the tens of thousands!
Over the years, Jessica has recruited more scientists, which, we believe, has made PETA the most credible and influential of all the organizations currently engaged in the fight against toxicity testing on animals.
Highlights and Accomplishments
The following are just some of the accomplishments of PETA's Regulatory Testing group:
- In 1999, more than 800,000 animals were saved thanks to PETA's campaign against the U.S. government's high production volume (HPV) chemical program, which was designed to test thousands of chemical substances on animals. Negotiations and campaign tactics persuaded the White House to make significant changes to the program, including replacing some tests with non-animal methods, delaying some tests for two years to allow for the development of non-animal tests, and dedicating $5 million to fund non-animal methods.
- PETA members flooded Congress with more than 50,000 letters demanding changes to the Environmental Protection Agency's Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, which was designed to kill tens of thousands of animals.
- The Department of Transportation halted burn tests on rabbits when PETA successfully argued that a modern non-animal test, Corrositex, had already been approved by the government and demanded an end to the painful test.
To combat the EPA's massive chemical-testing programs backed by "green meanies"—including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the World Wildlife Fund, and Environmental Defense—we launched MeanGreenies.com to push organizations claiming to care about the environment and wildlife to support and promote non-animal testing methods.
Meet PETA’s Regulatory Testing Division
This team of experts is leading the way in reforming federal and international regulations that require substances to be tested on animals.
- Jessica Sandler
Jessica Sandler received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her graduate degree in environmental health sciences from Johns Hopkins. She is the director of PETA's Regulatory Testing Division. - Kate Willett
PETA's science policy advisor, Kate Willett, has a Ph.D. in genetics and is a former pharmaceutical company researcher, specializing in developmental toxicity. - Samantha Dozier
Research associate Samantha Dozier has a Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology and specializes in the field of nanotechnology. - Joe Manuppello
Research associate Joe Manuppello has a master's degree in molecular biology and genetics and 20 years of research experience at the University of Pennsylvania. - Nancy Douglas
Research associate Nancy Douglas has a Ph.D. in biochemistry, molecular, and cell biology from Cornell and worked on plants in laboratories for 15 years. - Susan Hall
Susan Hall, attorney for the regulatory testing division, studied law at Rutgers University School of Law. She is responsible for filing and defending shareholder resolutions, litigation relating to regulatory testing issues, and filing rulemaking petitions to regulatory agencies.
PETA applauds its Regulatory Testing Division for all its hard work and dedication to saving the lives of millions of animals.
The Regulatory Testing Division is hard at work to end animal tests at this very moment, even while the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM)—the government agency charged with approving non-animal test methods, including many that are already used in Europe—refuses to take action.
Join PETA's Regulatory Testing Division in telling ICCVAM to get with the times. Take action now!
