Campaigners slam animal testing figures

CAMPAIGNERS yesterday condemned a “shocking” 17-year high in the number of scientific experiments carried out on animals.

British Home Office statistics released yesterday showed that just under 3.7 million animal procedures were conducted in Britain last year – up 14% on 2007.

Science and Innovation Minister Lord Drayson defended the figures, arguing that animal experiments were vital for increasing knowledge about disease and developing new treatments.

But animal welfare campaigners said the number of experiments was higher than since 1992.

One group, the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research has written to all the main political parties calling for a “roadmap to replacement” of animal testing with alternative procedures.

Dr Sebastien Farnaud, the trust’s science director, said: “With the scientific expertise this country has to offer, we should have seen far greater progress to replace animals with more advanced techniques. Such a shocking increase in animal experiments should be a wake-up call moment for policy makers.”

Scientists said Britain has some of the most stringent restrictions in the world when it comes to using animals for research.

The statistics show that as in previous years the vast majority of animal experiments involved mice, rats and other rodents.

Together they accounted for 75% of procedures. More than two million experiments were carried out on mice alone, an increase of 9%.

The rise was mainly due to more research conducted on fish, mice, amphibians, pigs, sheep and turkeys.

Fish experiments totalled about 600,000 up 85% on 2007.

Although pig procedures amounted to fewer than 7,000, their numbers had shot up by 114%.

Monkeys were involved in just under 4,600 experiments, an increase of 16%. There was no research carried out on great apes, since this was banned by law in 1986.

A total of 360 experiments were conducted on cats, more than 6,000 on dogs, about 9,300 on horses, and just more than 17,000 on rabbits.

Beagles accounted for almost all the dog procedures, and their numbers were down 17%. Rabbit and guinea pig testing had also reduced by 13% and 8% since 2007.