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Good news stories from 2024

When you’re working to make a monumental change, like a global end to animal research and testing, it can be hard to take time out and focus on the positive. But it’s the small changes that build up and create the momentum needed for the big ones!

With that in mind, this ‘Blue Monday’ we wanted to share some of the inspirational, positive news stories that stood out to us.

We’d love to hear your good news stories as well, get in touch at hello@replacinganimalresearch.org.uk or comment below!

Celean – Replacing Animal Research CEO

My good news story from 2024 has to be the election of a party to power that actually had an aspiration to end animal testing in its manifesto! With Labour’s emphasis on honesty, accountability and being different from what has gone before I am cautiously optimistic that progress can be made during the next few years. And we will definitely be there keeping a close eye on that those promises are fulfilled!

Oh, and the successful reintroduction of oysters to the Firth of Forth also made me smile. Our native marine ecosystems are so important and so delicate we need to protect them. Two good news stories! It must have been a good year 🙂

Catriona, Head of Fundraising and Communications

My good news story for 2024 came from one of our very own Innovation Grant winners, Barbara Guinn. Barbara was kind enough to join us for a team meeting to update us on her team’s work developing human-centred approaches for researching Ovarian Cancer. Whilst sharing her work Barbara also shared that despite working in cancer research she has not used animal ‘methods’ in over 15 years, which is just amazing to hear!

“In one of my earliest projects back in the 90s we were studying a treatment for lymphoma using mouse ‘models’. We successfully treated B-cell lymphoma, stopped the tumour regrowing and prevented the growth of related tumours in the same mice. However, the work did not translate into a successful treatment for humans. I’m interested in treating disease in humans, not mice, and whenever possible have looked for alternatives to animal models. I’ve been lucky enough to have been able to do research using non-animal, human-centred approaches for almost 15 years now.”

Amy, Head of Policy and Programmes

My good news story from 2024 is the Home Office releasing updated guidance for scientists applying for a Project Licence to conduct regulated scientific procedures on animals for. The guidance provides more detailed information on the evidence needed from researchers to demonstrate that alternative non-animal methods have been considered first.

Despite the legal requirement to do this, for many reasons, replacement opportunities are not always thoroughly searched for or exploited and then sadly animals are sometimes the default choice. A significant amount of our policy and training work is therefore focused on ensuring researchers have the knowledge, tools and support to consider alternative, non-animal methods more thoroughly. The guidance could be strengthened more, but this tiny step is already informing our work with all stakeholders which is great.

Chrissy, Executive Support Officer

My good news of this year was the fantastic response we had to our first official trustee campaign and the wonderful new trustees who joined our board. This is despite the less positive news that volunteering rates have declined across the charitable sector this year.

My bonus story is the rediscovery of an Ecuadorian frog that was lost for 100 years, which scientists think will be vital to protecting the southern Andes mountain which is the most degraded ecosystem in Ecuador. Heartwarming proof that sometimes life can continue even when all hope is lost.

Lucinda, Digital Engagement Manager

The return of Pine Martens to Britain!

It’s not directly related to animal research, but I think it shows a shift in public attitudes and priorities. More people are reassessing at our relationship with non-human animals and nature. They’re seeing that we should be living as part of an ecosystem – not trying to place ourselves on top of it.

I hope one day it won’t be controversial to say: we’re all animals, baby!

Plus, I’m a big fan of His Dark Materials trilogy so Pine Martens have a special place in my heart 😊

Juliet, Research Manager

Since my lovely work buddies are already celebrating the more obvious positives that have happened this year, I will sneak in with a late one. In December the Home Office announced that they had commissioned the Animals in Science Committee to seek recommendations for strengthening the development and sharing of leading practices on the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement). It is vital that replacement obligations under the under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) are met, and that new developments to replace animals in science are supported, but we know that many struggle to do this. This will be an unmissable opportunity for us to share how researchers, Universities and their Animal Welfare and Ethical review Bodies can be supported and guided to achieve this properly.

Also in the news, I wanted to share something that has happened that is adjacent to our work which reflects changing attitudes in the way we treat mice and rats. In July, the use of glue traps to catch rodents was banned across England and Wales. Glue traps have been widely available for decades, and although licensed ‘pest’ controllers will still be able to deploy them, stopping the public from using them will mean that wild animals will no longer experience the immense suffering and death that these indiscriminate traps cause.

Jessie, Policy Officer

My good news story of 2024 is the confirmation of a plan to phase out animal testing by the new Labour Government! Not only this, but we also had confirmation that the plan will be led by Lord Vallance, Minister of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, and take a cross-departmental approach alongside the Home Office and DEFRA, which is something we have been shouting about for a long time! I’m very excited to see this progress into 2025, and look forward to any chance we get to input into this!

Rita, ATLA Technical Editor

In the first ATLA issue of 2024, we published the report of a meeting in Brazil that brought together members of the Brazilian National Network of Alternative Methods (RENAMA).

While we always publish papers on the 3Rs, particularly replacement, it’s particularly pleasing seeing global initiatives handling non-animal methods from early discussion to development and implementation. Local requirements and circumstances of stakeholders (e.g. scientists, students, the public) need to be understood for non-animal methods to become the normal and such initiatives are crucial to make this happen.

RENAMA currently includes 51 laboratories from contract research organisations, academia, industry and government. RENAMA’s aim is to develop and validate new approach methodologies, as well as train researchers and disseminate information on their use — thus reducing Brazilian, and consequently Latin American, dependence on external technology.

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