Report Card Grades » Consumers Union/Consumer Policy Institute » Grade: C-

PETA wrote to the Consumers Union on March 9th, 2001 asking for its position on animal-testing, and the organization has yet to respond to PETA’s letter or endorse our statement:

• Calling on EPA to increase its funding and use of non-animal test methods; and
• Endorsing the use of only those new test methods that have been rigorously assessed by the Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods and found to be scientifically valid.

PETA wrote to the Consumers Union because it endorsed widespread animal-testing by signing on to a joint letter calling for the use of nonvalidated animal test methods such as the EPA’s developmental neurotoxicity test (DNT). The DNT, which kills between 1,200 and 2,500 animals every time it is performed, involves poisoning rats with toxic chemicals throughout their pregnancy and while they nurse their newborn pups. The pups are then subjected to a series of behavioral tests, after which they are killed and their brains are examined.

Shockingly, EPA officials have publicly admitted that the rat is not "the right model" for humans and that they do not even know how to interpret the results of the DNT. Click here to download PETA’s DNT factsheet.

What You Can Do
Please send polite letters urging the Consumers Union to withdraw its support for animal-testing. Click here for points you can include in your letter. Send letters to:

Gene Kimmelman
Vice President for Federal and International Affairs
Consumers Union
1101 17th Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
202-265-9548 (fax)