VANCOUVER—In another grim yearly update, the University of British Columbia (UBC) has just released an astounding tally of how many animals were used in research in 2024: 182,407, with nearly 40 percent subjected to “Category D” experiments, which can result in severe pain and distress.
UBC highlights the fact that animals vaguely described as “large mammals” make up less than a percent of the tens of thousands of animals experimented on. However, it’s still a mind-boggling number: 1,405 animals, with no detail provided about the species or the nature of the experimentation, including whether any of the animals are primates, cats, or dogs.
Although a UBC statement quoted in an Investigative Journalism Bureau story earlier this year gives the impression that the university has not experimented on dogs for “over 30 years,” a study published in 2022 still relied heavily on dog experimentation.
Approved by UBC’s Animal Care Committee and led by a UBC researcher, the study subjected dogs, rats, and minipigs to invasive heart procedures while the animals were fully conscious. The study included cruel tests involving 11 dogs acquired from a notorious U.S. laboratory animal breeder.
While the overall number of animals subjected to experiments declined somewhat steadily after UBC started publishing animal use data in 2010, reaching a low of 108,223 in 2020 (partially due to the pandemic, according to UBC), the number of animals used in recent years at the university has since been climbing, with the current count now on par with 10 years ago, despite a negligible one percent drop between 2023 and 2024.
This backslide is happening at a time when non-animal alternatives are flourishing, often producing superior data that is more relevant to human physiology, in ways that can be quicker and cost less. Additionally, Ontario is readying to ban cruel tests on some animals following public outcry over horrific dog experiments, which Animal Justice helped expose—painful, highly invasive research that notably fell under Category D, the same research classification for experiments performed on 72,834 animals last year at UBC.
The university also focuses on the fact that, in terms of numbers, rodents, reptiles, fish, and amphibians represent the bulk of animals tested on, glossing over the pain and terror animals—large or small—can experience during experiments.
Rodents represented nearly half of all animals used in UBC experiments last year, with 84,761 of the highly intelligent, sensitive and social animals, potentially forced to live in sterile isolation while undergoing procedures that can equate to the most unimaginable kinds of torture.
“While UBC’s decision more than a decade ago to proactively publish a small portion of its animal testing data was a positive step, the university’s progress on reducing the number of animals cruelly experimented on in the name of science remains largely frozen in time,” said Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director at Animal Justice.
“The number of animals used in 2024 is truly staggering, and continued reliance on non-specific terms such as ‘large mammals’ obscures meaningful transparency about what’s actually happening to animals in UBC labs. The public deserves clarity, and UBC should be reducing its animal use, not allowing the number of animals used in experiments to keep rising,” said Ms. Labchuk.
“Proponents of this entrenched, outdated model of experimentation often claim animal testing is a ‘necessary evil,’ but moving away from it isn’t the end of breakthroughs—it’s the start of more humane, innovative, and human-relevant science,” Ms. Labchuk said.
“It’s absurd that students, each funding UBC with thousands of dollars a year, can’t access clear information about the animal experimentation on campus. I want to know exactly what’s happening, not just a meaningless number—who the victims of the experiments are, what they are forced to endure, and for what purpose. I deserve transparency so I can decide whether these practices align with my values and whether I should speak out,” said Cloé Sousa, president of Vegans of UBC.
Contact:
Josh Lynn
Public Relations Manager
[email protected]
Camille Labchuk
Executive Director
[email protected]
Cloé Sousa
President, Vegans of UBC