In the news
6 Sep 2008
23 July 2007
Animal experiments rise to 15 year high – government accused of 'ethical negligence'
Home Office statistics released today (23 July 20071 ) reveal that Britain’s animal experiments are at a 15 year high. There were over 3.1 million animal experiments started in 20062 , making Britain the biggest animal tester in Europe3. The UK’s leading non-animal research charity, the Dr Hadwen Trust, has today accused the government of ethical negligence, and called on Prime Minister Brown to radically change his government’s approach to animal experiments by implementing a strategy for replacing them with non-animal research techniques.
Click here for the Dr Hadwen Trust’s detailed summary of the statistics published this year and in previous years (see Fact sheets on right hand side).
Says Nicky Gordon, Dr Hadwen Trust:
“Yet another rise in Britain’s laboratory animal suffering is a sad indictment of the government’s failed policy on animal experiments. Tony Blair’s legacy of allegiance to the vivisection industry has reversed the decline in levels of animal experiments, despite clear public concern about suffering and growing questions about scientific validity. Prime Minister Brown now has an opportunity to implement a strategy for change that is more about commitment than complacency. Since Labour’s election victory in 1997 when it promised better animal welfare, an extra 374,000 animals die each year in Britain’s labs. Labour’s era of ethical negligence must end if we are all to benefit from the clear medical, economic and welfare advantages of investing in a non-animal research future.”
Significant increases or procedures of note:
- 8% increase in procedures on GM animals
- Genetic modification of animals now represents over one third (34%) of all procedures
- Toxicity testing accounted for 14% of all procedures.
- The use of genetically manipulated animals has increased every year since 1990 when they represented a mere 1.5% of the total.
- All animal procedures are defined by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 as likely to cause “pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm”.
- In all, 62% of procedures were conducted without any form of anaesthesia whatsoever.
Increasingly, independent reviews of animal research efficacy published in journals like Nature and the British Medical Journal (BMJ), reveal that animal tests have limited applicability to humans. The most recent, Testing Treatment on Animals: Relevance to Humans, by Professor Ian Roberts (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) was published in the BMJ in 2006. It concluded that from a total of 221 animal studies (using over 7,100 animals) half of the animal results failed to correctly predict the human outcome4 . A 50% success rate is about as useful as tossing a coin.
ENDS
Notes to Editor
1. Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals – Great Britain, 2006, released in a summary, on the Home Office website on 23 July 2007. The complete document is available at http://scienceandresearch.homeoffice.gov.uk/animal-research/publications-and-reference/statistics/?version=2
2. Total procedures: 3,010,000, an increase of 4% from 2005 (The recent trend of increase: 2.73 million animal experiments in 2002; 2.79 million animal experiments in 2003; 2.85 million in 2004 and 2.9 million in 2005).
3. Latest statistics declared from each Member State reveal Europe’s top three for animal experiments: First Britain with 3,010,000 (2006) followed by Germany with 2,412678 (2005) and third France with 2,325,398 (2004).
4. P Perel et al (15 December 2006). British Medical Journal doi:10.1136/bmj.39048.407928.BE
5. The Dr Hadwen Trust is the UK’s leading non-animal medical research charity funding exclusively non-animal techniques to replace animal experiments. www.drhadwentrust.org
