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Description
The European Union is failing to reduce the number of animal experiments, there is about 11 millions animals used for experiments every year. This is due, for example, to the laxity of authorities that do not require the use of non-animal methods, as well as the existence of several European regulations that directly mandate the testing of various substances on animals. And therefore there are still animal experiments to which non-animal alternatives already exist (e.g. www.crueltyfreeeurope.org/RATlist). The goal of this project is to prompt the European Commission to a commitment to adopt a plan to end animal testing in the EU. We plan to achieve this goal by involving the Czech public and volunteers in the European Citizens'' Initiative (EOI). EOI will be launched by Cruelty Free Europe (an international organisation of which we are members). Organisations from different European countries will work together on the EOI. Our organisation is the only one from the Czech Republic that is dedicated to the topic. The aim of the project is to obtain the minimum number of signatures for the EOI for the Czech Republic (14 805) including the necessary reserve, i.e. 20 000 signatures in total. In addition to collecting signatures for the EOI, we will inform the public about the issue of animal experimentation and the possibility of replacing it. We will engage our existing volunteers and supporters in collecting signatures while seeking and engaging new ones.
Summary of project results
The public has become aware of the large number of animals used in completely unnecessary experiments and the suffering caused to them during them. The campaign made people feel that the change is in their hands, through the change of European legislation, specifically by signing the European Citizens'' Initiative (EOI).
Thanks to our campaign, the Czech Republic became the European leader in collecting signatures under the EOI, obtaining more than 500% of the set limit of signatures. This success led to a change the position of Animal Freedom among European organizations for the protection of animals. We have established a number of deeper collaborations with European animal protection organizations, which will enable us to cooperate more effectively in the framework of European topics in the future as well. Freedom of Animals provided a range of advice, know-how and ideas to other Europeans organizations for the protection of animals, which were not so successful in collecting signatures. The idea of a celebrity video was used by animal protection organizations in Germany, Poland, Ireland, Bulgaria, Ireland and Austria.
Our campaign also influenced the collection of signatures in Slovakia. Animal Freedom there published our video with influencers, which generated several thousand signatures. A number of Slovak media wrote about the celebrity video. And last but not least, 5-7% of our supporters on social networks are citizens of the Slovak Republic, who thanks to our campaign gained information directly from us.
Great success thanks to the advice of Animal Freedom was achieved in Bulgaria, where the campaign is implemented by the new animal protection organization Nevidimi Zhivotni. That thanks to the overall taking over our know-how campaign, including the Bulgarian version of the Animal Freedom website to collect contacts, gained a large number of supporters and successfully started fundraising, which will allow this organization to establish itself, implement further development and influence animal rights in the future as well.
Freedom of Animals thus contributed to the collection of signatures under the EOI not only with a large number of collected signatures, but also with the support it provided to other European organizations on animal rights and thus made a significant effort to ensure that the EOI goal (one million signatures across the EU) was achieved.