Fundraisers

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Background

All universities exist on a tight budget. Each year departments within Universities attempt to obtain funding from different sources in order to stay solvent. A large amount of this funding comes from the government and student fees. However, this just about covers running costs. The money for academics to do their precious research and purchase resources often comes from the private sector.

Every university is dependent on private funding to stay in existence and it is something they are very careful to keep. In Oxford University's case, private funding accounts for 50% more than what they get from the Government.

This funding comes from two specific groups. The main group being industry, which is keen to fund areas of research that will be useful to them. For example, the psychology and medical departments in Oxford receive a lot of money from a pharmaceutical industry essentially trying to trade on the reputation of scientists to boost the reputation of their own products.

The other funding comes from private donors, who contribute money as part of charitable foundations or as individuals. These can be very sizable indeed - the 'Oxford University Said Business School' for example was financed to the tune of £40 million by billionaire Wafic Said alone.

Even small donations to particular departments, such as a few thousand to cover some event or scholarship can be very important to individuals within departments. To make external funding even more significant, many research grants from Government agencies actually come with conditions that a proportion of the money is raised from private funding as well.

Aim

Oxford University is made up of thousands of academics and researchers working in particular field of academia. A small number of them are ignorant of what is going on in the departments where animals are used. However, the vast majority are apathetic to the suffering of the animals. If it doesn't affect them, they see no reason to object to such practices.

We want to change this, and in order to make them realise that animal torture affects everyone and they cannot avoid the issue. We need them to understand that their silence or ignorance is not an excuse for their failure to speak out against animal abuse.

So if the academics at Oxford University are not prepared to listen to us or to the cries of the animals suffering at an institution they work in, maybe they will listen to those organisations donating money to their departments. In the scramble for resources, where various funding is tied up together, funders pulling out, even small ones, can be a major wake-up call.

And as word gets around about the campaign, funding is going to be very hard to raise in the future.

What you can do

We believe that many funders will be horrified at just what sort of cruelty is taking place in Oxford University's animal labs, and will be more than happy to stop future donations until the plans for the new laboratory are scrapped. Others will not want the social stigma of being associated with animal abuse.

Of course, many will complain, saying that they are not directly involved but fund departments and colleges completely separate. We accept this, but the point is, that the university is made up of a wide range of academic staff and though are campaign may be specifically against the building of the new animal lab and the torture of animals at Oxford, they must take some responsibility for the abuse of animals close to depts they are funding and whose members remain silent on the subject. Anyone at Oxford University not connected to the animal abuse dept has a role to play in preventing the new lab from ever being built and they can remain silent no longer.

Many of the donors are individuals who have given privately. In these cases, the money they are donating is coming from their leading roles in large companies. To this end, we are asking people to not just contact the individuals concerned, but their colleagues in the company. When you do this, please make sure your message remains polite and explain just why they are being contacted, and point them in the direction of the individual who is funding Oxford University.

Over the forthcoming year, we will be releasing details of individuals who have donated money to the University, through our email action alert list. Please take part by sending polite messages encouraging them to sever their ties with Oxford University as long as the university continues wasting money on pointless and cruel animal experiments, and ask them to provide a statement as to why they are no longer willing to support Oxford University.

Disclaimer: The information on this website is for the purpose of legal protest and information only. It should not be used to commit any criminal acts or harassment.