UK: RSPCA outrage as experiments on animals rise to 2.85m
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http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1663421,00.html
RSPCA outrage as experiments on animals rise to 2.85m
Alok Jha, science correspondent
Friday December 9, 2005
The Guardian
The number of scientific experiments on animals rose by 63,000 last year to
just over 2.85m, according to data released by the Home Office yesterday.
Most of the increase was from work on rats and mice; the number of
procedures on non-human primates dropped by 12% in the same period compared
with 2003.
Anti-vivisection groups expressed concern at the figures. The RSPCA said it
was "outraged by statistics released by the Home Office which show that last
year the highest number of scientific procedures was carried out on animals
since 1992. Equally shocking is that the number of procedures on animals has
risen for the third consecutive year".
Robin Lovell-Badge of the National Institute for Medical Research said the
increase could be accounted for by the ever-expanding number of genetically
modified animals used.
"[They] are extremely valuable for understanding human disease and for the
search for cures," he said. "The vast majority of these have no, or very
mild symptoms, and are simply used for breeding, which counts as a procedure
and therefore inflates the statistics."
Steve Brown, director of the Medical Research Council's Mammalian Genetics
Unit, said genetically modified animals were key to scientific research. "We
have to use these technologies to study the relationship between genes and
disease. We have to create new strains of mice in which individual genes are
knocked out."
More than 94% of the procedures in 2004 were carried out on rats, mice,
birds and fish. Less than 1% were carried out on non-human primates, dogs,
cats and horses, which are afforded special protection by legislation.
The number of procedures using primates was down by 591 on the 2003 figure,
to 4,208, with most being used to test medicines.
Vicky Robinson, chief executive of the National Centre for the Replacement,
Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research, said that the statistics
gave only part of the picture.
"They are a useful indicator of trends in animal use but they should not be
considered in isolation," she said. "They are not a measure of the UK's
commitment to science and technologies to implement the principles of the
3Rs - that is the replacement of animals with humane alternatives, the
reduction in the numbers of animals used and the refinement of experiments
to minimise suffering."
The national centre for the 3Rs, established by the government in 2004, has
spent £1m on research last year.
But Adolfo Sansolini, chief executive of the British Union for the Abolition
of Vivisection, said the government paid only "lip service" to the issue of
alternatives. "It has no strategy to reduce the numbers of animals used, and
in concentrating attention on the violent acts done by a violent minority,
has diverted attention away from the real story which is that millions of
animals are still being tested on."