They have a tough life! 90% of Europeans would like them to be treated better. A new law aims to reduce the number of animals used in scientific experiments.

A-Z: L for lab animals

90% of Europeans would like them  to be treated better.

The aim is to reduce the number  of animals used in experiments

and to improve their welfare,  without slowing scientific research.

I visited some labs  as a hidden camera. Watch.

In Europe, millions of animals  are used in experiments,

particularly in Germany,  France and the UK.

They are subjected to painful treatments  to test drugs or beauty products,

since a new treatment can't be used  on humans until tested in living animals.

but all these animals suffer  and end up dying.

That's starting, in research  into brain infections, for example,

Essentially, we are using  a number of approaches.

from patients that have had brain tissue  removed, perhaps during an operation,

and to use them to develop  our own model of the blood-brain barrier.

Then we can look at how viruses  get across that blood-brain barrier.

In this UK laboratory  they've invented a new type of test.

It happens in this machine  and not in living animals or people.

Inside it, human cells live  as they do in the body

and remedies for diseases  are tested in the box.

The EU wants to encourage  these new methods.

It does work perfectly  as a piece of liver tissue, for example,

where you want to test  the effectiveness or safety

You can test that on a piece  of real human liver tissue in the lab

Part of the research is aimed towards  new experiments without animals.

But tests on primates are still allowed.

The new EU law permits them  if there's no alternative.

In that case the checks  on primates' welfare must be increased.

For animal rights activists  this isn't enough.

They wanted a complete ban  on the use of primates.

This European law still allows researchers  to carry out painful and fatal experiments

when these primates  are very intelligent creatures

with an emotional life  very close to our own.

We didn't even get a target date  for ending these tests

on 10,000 primates every year  within the EU.

So, while we wait for research  to manage without animals,

the EU wants to guarantee  better treatment for them.

It's time for animals  to suffer less on our behalf.

BRITISH UNION FOR THE ABOLITION  OF VIVISECTION