In the news
11 Mar 2010
19 October 2009
DHT scientist joins call for Oxford University to champion alternatives
Oxford alumni including animal behaviourist Desmond Morris, Nobel Prize winning novelist JM Coetzee, Ann Widdecombe MP, environmentalist Jonathon Porritt, former head of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) and government adviser on animal experiments 1987 – 1995, Prof. Michael Balls and the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt. Rev. James Jones have signed an Open Letter to incoming Vice-Chancellor Prof. Andrew Hamilton calling for the university to become a progressive and leading institution in non-animal medical research.
The Dr Hadwen Trust’s own Oxford scholar Dr Candida Nastrucci, also supported the initiative. The letter, published in the Oxford Magazine, states: “We are dismayed to see the University committing itself, in its new animal laboratory, to the long-term continuation of experiments which cause pain and other suffering to animals… We would like to see Oxford University become, instead, a progressive institution in this matter – as it already is in so many other respects – and lead the way in developing animal-free medical research”.
The letter comes in the 50th anniversary year of the birth of the Three Rs concept (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal experiments). These principles were incorporated into the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 as part of an implicit expectation that animal use would be gradually phased out. However, in the absence of a clear government led national strategy to replace animals and invest in non-animal solutions, the real potential of the Three Rs has not been realised and this year Home Office statistics revealed Britain’s animal experiments have reached a 22-year high.
The Dr Hadwen Trust has called on the main political parties to commit to developing a Roadmap to Replacement. This would involve pro-active stakeholder engagement with experts from science, academia, industry, politics and animal welfare. Universities such as Oxford could clearly have a significant role to play in championing the development of advanced techniques to replace experiments on animals. The letter asks the incoming Vice-Chancellor to consider a Declaration of Intent to place renewed emphasis on the Three Rs and in particular to commit itself energetically to the replacement of animals in its scientific research.
The Open Letter is an initiative of Voice for Ethical Research at Oxford (VERO) and its patron Sir David Madden. Other signatories were Mike Baker, Chief Executive of the World Society for the Protection of Animals; Dr Candida Nastrucci, Science and Communications Officer of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research; writer Richard Adams; philosopher Prof. Stephen Clark; psychologist Dr Richard Ryder; neurosurgeon Dr Marius Maxwell; and current Fellow in Philosophy at Oxford University Dr Katherine Morris.
