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Animal Testing - Index >
Anti-Vivisection Index
Friday 22 April 2005
by
Advocates for Animals and Animal Defenders International
New
figures and report expose shocking reality of animal experiments in Scotland
To coincide
with World Day for Laboratory Animals on 24 April, Advocates for Animals
reveals, for the first time, detailed statistics showing the number and types of
experiments on animals carried out in Scotland. The following figures relate to
experiments using animals in Scotland in 2003 (the latest year for which figures
are available). They reveal:
Over 430,000
experiments (433,646, 15.6% of GB total of 2,791,781);
1,161
primates (24.2% of GB total), 1,269 dogs (17.8% of GB total), 2,821 horses and
other equids (31.8% of GB total) and 6,973, rabbits (27.5% of GB total) were
used;
560 project
licences in force (18.8% of GB total); these authorise programmes of work that
involve animal experiments;
35 licensed
establishments (15% of GB total); these are premises on which animal experiments
may be carried out;
125,527
animals with harmful genetic defects were used (45.0% of GB total);
24.4% of the
experiments were performed by commercial concerns, 37% by universities and
medical schools and 37.1% by other public bodies.
New
Report into Inveresk laboratories, Edinburgh
These
figures are released hot on the heels of a new report, Animal Experiments at
Inveresk, produced by Animal Defenders International (ADI). Internal documents
and photographs relating to experiments at Inveresk laboratories, near Edinburgh
were leaked to ADI and provide a chilling insight into the world of contract
research, where laboratories are paid to conduct animal experiments on behalf of
manufacturers of products such as drugs, chemicals, household and industrial
substances.
Inveresk
laboratories, offers its clients dogs, monkeys, rats, mice, rabbits, pigs,
guinea pigs, goats, cows, birds, and fish for experimentation and claims to be
responsible for approximately 1% of all experiments taking lace in the UK - over
25,000 animals every year.
Details of
experiments like these are rarely published so this report offers a unique
insight into the world of commercial animal experimentation. ADI’s Inveresk
report provides detailed information about experiments on dogs, monkeys, rabbits
and rats. It states that:
Extreme
animal suffering and side effects arose from experiments, such as:
dogs foaming
at the mouth, vomiting and bleeding from the gums;
rats choking
to death on paint;
monkeys
subdued, hunched in their cages, with swollen penises and scrota.
Miscalculations in dosing resulted in severe suffering, death and premature
termination of studies;
Researchers
ran out of the test substance, half way through a study;
A test
substance passed its expiry date before the end of the experiment, whilst dosing
of the animals continued;
Animal tests
were conducted when human studies were already underway;
Animal
results were ignored - human studies continued after adverse animal results;
A drug was
accidentally pumped into dogs' lungs instead of their stomachs.
Advocates’
Director, Ross Minett, said: “We are disturbed to find that over 430,000
experiments are conducted on animals in Scotland each year, with over 1,000
primates, 1,000 dogs, nearly 3,000 horses and almost 7,000 rabbits used. In
addition to the moral concerns about experiments on animals, the scientific
world is increasingly questioning the validity of animal research with many
believing that such research is holding back modern science. We urge the
Scottish Executive to work with the Home Office to give a higher priority to
developing and implementing alternatives to using animals in experiments.”
ADI’s Chief
Executive, Jan Creamer, said: "UK and EU regulations require that animals should
only be used when necessary; that non-animal methods be sought. And yet we see
at Inveresk, experiments on animals when human clinical trials are being
undertaken, blunders during experimental procedures which cause animals severe
suffering, animals being choked to death with paint for unnecessary tests.”
Notes
to Editors
For further
information, interviews and photographs, please contact Advocates’ Director,
Ross Minett on 0131 225 6039 (out of hours: 07946 517585) or ADI’s Chief
Executive, Jan Creamer, on 020 8563 0250.
The
statistics for Scotland were specially calculated by Home Office Minister,
Caroline Flint MP, in response to Parliamentary Questions tabled by John
Robertson MP. The Great Britain figures are drawn from the Home Office
publication Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain
2003.
The ADI
report, Animal Experiments at Inveresk, is available on-line at:
www.ad-international.org/download_files/animal_experiments/inveresk.pdf
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