Wilson Signs Law Barring GM Animal Test Evidence

Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday signed into law a measure by Assemblyman Mike Gotch (D-San Diego) aimed at pressuring General Motors into discontinuing the use of live animals in car crash tests.

The new law--which Gotch carried at the behest of the Doris Day Animal League and several other animal rights groups--prohibits any evidence derived from experimentation or crash tests involving live animals from being admitted as evidence in product liability lawsuits stemming from car accidents.

While it does not ban the tests, Gotch and supporters of the law say it sends a clear message that Californians will not tolerate such methods.

“Using animals in crash tests is not only cruel, but completely unnecessary,” Gotch said in a prepared statement. “With the current level of technology available to auto manufacturers, this sort of animal abuse makes no sense.”

General Motors is the only car manufacturer that still uses dogs, pigs, rabbits, ferrets and other animals in such tests, according to legislative analyses of the Gotch bill.

The company has used more than 20,000 animals since 1981. The recent tests “involve restraining the live animal, powerfully striking the restrained animal in the head, chest or abdomen with a blunt instrument and observing the trauma,” one of the analyses says.

GM did not officially oppose the Gotch measure but wrote to one of the animal rights groups in December that it intends to continue the tests on live animals.

The auto giant has asserted that the tests lead to safer cars and a reduction of highway fatalities. GM also says that other car manufacturers have come to rely on its research methods as well.

Gotch and proponents of the measure have argued that use of live animals in crash tests has been rendered obsolete by the use of computer simulation, dummies and cadavers.

“Tens of thousands of animals have been killed in these experiments, experiments that modern technology has proven obsolete,” Gotch said. “These barbaric and outdated testing methods must be stopped.”