AR-News: (UK) Animal testing

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Times Online

May 05, 2004 


What really happens to animals in vivisection labs? Do people have an 
exaggerated view of what goes on?


 
LETTERS on this subject expose some exaggeration and ignorance about the 
Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act that governs the use of animals in research in 
the UK. 
>From my experience, I suspect that it is not often the case that “vivisection 
labs cause pain and misery . . .” (Jonathan Balcombe, Debate, April 29). It 
is, however, only the Home Office that has the facts that could impartially 
inform the public on such details, and it might be a helpful contribution to 
public understanding if the annual reports on the working of the Act were to 
include summarised data to confirm or refute such assertions. 


My impression is that the majority of licenced work involves little more than 
the feeding or other administration of exogenous substances, the withdrawal 
of biological samples (most commonly blood) for chemical and haematological 
analysis, and painless euthanasia so that tissue samples can be systematically 
examined post-mortem. Such procedures are not truthfully described by your 
correspondents’ assertions. Indeed, the majority of procedures involve little more 
than trivial or fleeting discomfort to animals that are kept under conditions 
of exemplary housing and husbandry. 
While there is always room for critical discussion of the value and relevance 
of animal research to human physiology and disease, there can be no 
justification for misleading the public about what actually happens to animals that are 
used in biomedical research. There should be provision for more detailed 
public information to provide a factual basis for deciding whether things that 
happen in vivisection laboratories are “unspeakable”, or not. 
Emeritus Professor D. F. Kelly,
Department of Veterinary Pathology,
University of Liverpool 
Benefits outweigh the costs 



full story:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-1098902,00.html    


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    "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those 
rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of 
tyranny. The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they 
SUFFER?" 
Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 



         
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