In the news
6 Sep 2008
8 March 2007
National Obesity Week
National Obesity Week – stop painful animal ‘obesity’ tests and go veggie instead say campaigners
Vegetarian cookery guru Rose Elliot MBE has joined the Dr Hadwen Trust in calling for an end to cruel and pointless animal experiments for human obesity, as part of National Obesity Week (w/c March 12th). Instead she is promoting a healthy vegetarian lifestyle to beat the bulge.
More than half of all UK adults are obese or overweight – it’s a worrying and growing global epidemic. What most people don’t know however, is that every year around the world, thousands of animals such as monkeys and mice are subjected to painful and potentially misleading laboratory experiments. Mice are genetically modified to become obese and monkeys can have painful electrodes inserted into their brain to test their reaction to different foods.
It is time for animal suffering for human obesity to stop, says Rose who is backing a new report ‘Hard To Swallow’ (0.4mb) by non-animal medical research charity, the Dr Hadwen Trust. The report reveals how animals are continuing to suffer in painful experiments despite them being potentially misleading and irrelevant to the human condition. Human-based non-animal research plus a veggie diet and regular exercise is the key to beating obesity, says Rose and the Dr Hadwen Trust.
Says Rose Elliot MBE:
“I believe that going vegetarian is one of the most effective ways to be kind to yourself, as well as to animals and the planet. Vegetarians are far less likely to suffer from obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and cancers. We don’t need painful animal experiments to tell us that following a balanced, healthy diet low in saturated fat, cholesterol and animal protein, coupled with banishing the sedentary lifestyle, is the key to tackling obesity.”
“Central to adopting a compassionate lifestyle, is thinking about the impact of our actions on others and taking responsibility for them. I believe that animals should not suffer so that we can eat them, particularly when doing so can be so harmful to us. I also believe that animals should not suffer in laboratories so that we can seek answers to human problems for which we already have the solutions.”
The Dr Hadwen Trust is the UK’s leading non-animal medical research charity. It is calling on the government to end obesity animal research and promote instead more relevant and ethical approaches such as human volunteer studies and brain imaging, as well as education about going vegetarian.
Says Wendy Higgins of the Dr Hadwen Trust:
“It’s time we stopped making animals in laboratories suffer for health problems we largely inflict on ourselves. Modern, non-animal research techniques are far more relevant to human obesity, and an active, compassionate lifestyle packed full of veggie nutrition is a far more effective way of beating obesity. Obesity is a killer, but killing animals – for the laboratory or for the dinner table – will not help people to lead healthier lives.”
