Animal testing 'inhumane and ineffective'

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A campaign to end animal testing has attracted the attention of parliamentarians by staging a photocall near the Palace of Westminster.

The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS), the world's premier anti-vivisection group, stepped up its campaign to highlight the current Home Office public consultation on animal experimentation by gathering with cross-party MPs and peers in Victoria Tower Gardens.

Politicians were invited to have their photographs taken with an inflatable beagle, chosen to represent that breed of dog's popularity as a laboratory animal.

The photocall comes a month after the instigation of the first major revision of animal experimentation legislation in 25 years, launched by the coalition government to bring the new EU Directive on animal testing (2010/63/EU) on to the statute books.

As part of the government's review, the Home Office is undertaking a public consultation, opening in June and closing in September, to ascertain the nation's views on testing on animals.

To raise awareness amongst the general public, in addition to parliamentarians, NAVS has launched the national campaign, 'Cutting Edge, Not Knife Edge'.

Wednesday's event took place as the Home Office released the latest data for animal experimentation.

'Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals', published annually, shows that the number of procedures on animals in the UK in 2010 increased by three per cent on 2009 figures.

This translated as an increase of 105,186 from 3,619,540 tests to 3,724,726 tests.

Attending the photocall was a cross-party selection of politicians, including the Green Party's Caroline Lucas and Conservative MP Gordon Henderson.

Speaking exclusively to ePolitix.com, Caroline Lucas MP emphasised the need to find "effective, humane alternatives" to animal research.

The Brighton Pavilion MP said that the majority of people would be "shocked" to hear that the number of animal tests in the UK is increasing.

She said: "The bottom line is that not only are animal tests cruel, but they actually are outdated. We do need more investment in non-animal alternatives.

"We know that many non-animal alternatives exist. What we need is more resources to bring those to market."

Lucas continued: "We have examples of where an animal test might prove positive 50 per cent of the time and negative the other 50 per cent of the time.

"A lot of the time we are simply not using a gold standard in the first place. We are not using effective tests as it stands."

Jan Creamer, chief executive of NAVS, urged the government to pursue investment in technological solutions that make experimentation on animals obsolete.

"We don't need to use animals, it's old-fashioned technology and old-fashioned science," Creamer said.

"What we need to do is invest in the science of the future – advanced technologies. Animal testing can be replaced by better methods of research."

And Creamer noted that investment in non-animal alternatives was not merely a question of pursuing the most humane method, but also the most economically productive.

"All of the advancements in science now are being made at the high end of technology, so we need to ensure Britain is at the forefront of these changes.

"Countries that don't invest in new technologies will get left behind," Creamer said.

Please find out more about the National Anti-Vivisection Society's (NAVS) campaign against animal experimentation.