The association which since 1897 has been campaigning against the use of animals in medical research is giving up its fight in favour of working with universities and laboratories in the search for alternative methods, Trouw reports on Tuesday.

Proefdiervrij (literally, free of test animals) says that besieging company gates with banners and break-ins to free test animals is old-fashioned. Negotiation is a better method of getting rid of the practice, director Marja Zuidgeest told the paper.
In addition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to explain why the use of animals in medical research is unacceptable when this can leave patients without the medicine or procedure they need, she said.
Models
The association will in future restrict itself to finding alternative testing methods which will eventually lead to the abandonment of animal testing.
There is already a model rat on which trainee surgeons can practise their skills and a computer programme showing the inside of a frog, so these creatures no longer have to be sliced open.
The veterinary faculty of Utrecht university has already said it will work closely with Proefdiervrij.