World Lab Animal Day information table

World Lab Animal Day, which falls on this Thursday, April 24, is a day to remember the countless animals who are confined in laboratories across the world and subjected to severe pain and suffering in the name of "scientific" and product research.

Each year millions of animals die in commercial laboratories around the world. Hundreds of thousands of these tests are for common household ingredients or products – home or personal products that people buy every day. Paint, polish, soap, detergents, cosmetics, air fresheners, foods with additives and many other items are tested on animals.

Commercial product or ingredient tests are conducted in secret. A paint test leaked to Animal Defenders International (ADI) revealed how rats were restrained and forced to inhale paint fumes. Imagine what that would be like, unable to move and having to breathe heavy paint fumes for hours. Within three hours half the animals were dead, and the others were close to death.

Many U.S. companies continue to test on animals, even though such tests are not required by any U.S. government agency. The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported that in 2006, 1,012,713 animals were used in research. However, according to the Animal Welfare Act and the Code of Federal Regulations, that figure excludes the use of birds, rats, mice, fish, reptiles, amphibians and other cold-blooded animals.

In 1998, after years of campaigning, ADI secured a ban on testing cosmetics on animals in England. Five years later, with public support, Europe confirmed it would also phase out all testing of cosmetics on animals.

With your help, we can end these tests in the U.S.!

In honor of World Lab Animal Day, Animal Defenders International will be setting up an information table for passers-by at Justin Herman Plaza from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. We’ll be handing out information about animal research, non-animal research methods and lists of animal and non-animal tested products.

If you would like to join us and help pass out flyers around the Plaza, please call Jennifer Blum at (415)902-5763 or just come down and look for our table.

Hope to see you there! These animals need our voices!

What: World Lab Animal Day

When: April 24, 2008, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Why: To distribute information about animal research and non-animal research methods

Who: Animal Defenders International

Where: Justin Herman Plaza, 1 Market Street, San Francisco, at the foot of Market Street at the Embarcadero, just behind the Hyatt Regency Hotel