Each year, 10 million mice, dogs, cats, and monkeys and other animals are exploited in testing labs throughout Europe. While there have been several efforts to reduce this number, now they're finally getting serious. The European Union just voted to establish a commission and an action plan to phase out all of the cruel testing on animals. Not only are animals inefficient surrogates (at best) for humans in understanding diseases, technology is creating more far reliable testing methods. This is a big, complex issue and it certainly won't happen overnight, but this is a very big step in saving all these poor creatures from their tortuous fate.