PAN UK’s 30+ years of expertise is on pesticides used on agricultural crops (or ‘plant protection products’ as they are also known). Therefore, we came to the issue of veterinary medicines with this background and so began our research by looking at active substances that are not approved for use on agricultural crops due to the harms they cause, but are permitted for inclusion in veterinary medicines. We were trying to understand how chemicals such as fipronil and imidacloprid could still be present in UK rivers, despite no longer being used on crops.
This approach led us to a list of nine active substances that are not permitted for use on agricultural crops but are used in veterinary medicines. Of the nine:
- One is approved for use on cattle and sheep (alpha-cypermethrin)
- One is approved for use on honey bees (amitraz)
- One is approved for use on rabbits (cyromazine)
- One is approved for use on salmon (teflubenzuron)
- Five are approved for use on cats and dogs (dinotefuran, fipronil, imidacloprid, nitenpyram and permethrin)
Due to the prevalence of active substances included in medicines for cats and dogs, we decided to focus solely on those species. We had thought that we might include rabbits under a broader heading of ‘pets’ but discovered that, while banning the five active substances in question would leave plenty of alternative products for dogs and cats, this would not be the case if cyromazine was banned for rabbits and so we removed them from the project.
In addition, given that anything to do with livestock links directly to issues around farmers’ livelihoods (and the fact that many British farmers are struggling to make ends meet right now) an initial focus on cats and dogs also feels like an appropriate place to start, since the risks undertaken by those in the agricultural sector arguably outweigh those taken by pet owners.