The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hoping to find homes for some of its testing animals held for research conducted under the Biden administration.
Under President Donald Trump’s first administration, the EPA aimed to phase-out animal testing by 2035, a plan the Biden administration abandoned on the grounds that the practice was necessary for scientific integrity. The EPA laid out requirements and restrictions for adopting test animals held in the agency’s Research Triangle Park (RPT) campus in North Carolina on April 28, marking the first time an adoption program had been implemented at that location, according to the EPA.
“As animals continued to be tested by the agency because of the intentional lack of progress on efforts to reduce animal testing over the past four years, the Trump EPA is working to get as many of the animals into loving homes as possible,” a spokesperson for the EPA told the Daily Caller News Foundation “However, animals ineligible for adoption due to their exposure to harmful pollutants will be given humane end of life care. As EPA makes works to get back on track reducing animal testing, the agency will continue adhering to the gold standard of science when conducting research to support its statutory responsibilities.”
The action does not signal the end of all animal research at the EPA, according to the agency, though Administrator Lee Zeldin is committed to reimplementing the animal testing phase-out, according to several reports.
Several testing animals have found new homes to date, including two rabbits, six rats and ten zebrafish, according to the EPA. The RPT lab is thought to have about 20,000 animals, according to The Washington Times.
All animals adopted were no longer being used for research, had not been exposed to any substances toxic to humans and went to staff affiliated with EPA RPT, the agency noted. No experiments had been conducted on the rats or zebrafish, according to the EPA.
Additionally, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) requested to adopt 150 rats, and the agency will collaborate with PETA when or if the animals are available, according to the EPA.
EPA animal testing is commonly used to research how chemicals affect biological development, according to the agency’s website. Some of the testing under the Biden administration reportedly involved analyzing the sperm of the animals to try and address the “worldwide drop in human semen quality,” according to The Washington Times.
“The use of alternative testing methods will better predict chemical or pesticide hazards without relying on potentially fatal testing on mammals,” Andrew Wheeler, EPA Administrator under the first Trump administration, said in June 2020.
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