The United States government requires extensive animal poisoning tests for every pesticide manufactured or sold in the country. An estimated 7,400 or more rats, mice, rabbits, birds, fish, and dogs are killed in laboratory experiments just to satisfy government data requirements for a single pesticide “active ingredient.” This does not include animals used in testing that is required for other ingredients in a pesticide formulation or the final formulation itself. Virtually none of the animal tests required have ever been properly validated to ensure that their results are reliable and relevant to humans or other species of concern.
