Play your part in getting an historic investigation into Vivisection!

SPEAK has always supported open discussion of whether the Oxford University Animal Lab – and vivisection in general – should go ahead. Unfortunately the pro-vivisectionists, despite their protestations of wanting an open debate, clearly don’t.

Now we’re asking you to spend a few minutes to help make an historic inquiry into the medical relevance of vivisection go ahead. Time is running out fast, so please act today.

A parliamentary Early Day Motion 92 (EDM) is requesting an independent investigation into testing drugs on animals. At the very least any inquiry like this will find severe limitations to the use of animals, and recommend drastic changes.

Supporters of animal testing have been actively trying to sabotage EDM92 by telephoning MPs and urging them NOT to sign it – because they know it will reveal the uncomfortable truth about vivisection. This desperation clearly illustrates that the pro-vivisectionist organisations that are orchestrating the sabotage campaign are fully aware that, scientifically, vivisection is flawed and therefore a fraudulent practice.

What we need you to do is this:

• Go to www.vote4animals.org.uk and enter your postcode. If your MP has not signed, politely ask him or her to do so. You could point out that it’s an inquiry supported by over 80% of GPs and several establishment medical organisations (details of this are below). This takes about 3 minutes.

• If you think your MP won’t sign, try anyway. Many people have been shocked to find their MP, who previously was unsympathetic, has signed. This is a very reasonable and very popular EDM. If you arrange to meet your MP at their surgery, make sure you take the wording of the EDM – which is below.

• Ask friends to contact their MP and do the same. If they have no internet access, they can write:

House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Or phone - 020 7219 3000

• Write to your local paper and ask people to request their MP to sign – you could use the sample letter below.

• Flyers are available to give out – email [email protected] to request an email version to print yourself or some sent by post.

Time is running out

The deadline for EDMs in this session is on or around November 8th. Already EDM92 is in the top 1% of most signed EDMs, but we need to get many more to sign if we’re going to make this happen. This is an historic chance to really make a difference, so please do all you can.

Who supports this Inquiry

Currently supported by over 240 MPs from all parties, this is among the top 1% of most supported EDMs currently on the books.

• 83% of doctors, in an independent poll, supported the idea of an independent evaluation.

• A 2004 paper in the British Medical Journal concluded that "the contribution of animal studies to clinical medicine requires urgent formal evaluation."

• Published studies assessing the prediction of drug side effects by animals have found them to be very poor predictors; correct only 5-25% of the time. Scientifically evaluated cell culture tests have been discovered to be 80-85% accurate.

• Home Office Minister Caroline Flint stated in 2004 that the Government "has not commissioned or evaluated any formal research on the efficacy of animal experiments and has no plans to do so." So animal experiments have never been assessed to see if they’re worth doing!

• Adverse drug reactions are our fourth leading cause of death: killing over 10,000 people a year in the UK and costing the NHS £466 million. All drugs contributing to this have passed tests on animals.

• Over half of the side effects from drugs are not detected in the animal tests. And three quarters of the side effects predicted by animal tests never happen.

• 92% of drugs fail in clinical trials, having successfully passed through animal studies. [4]

• Sophisticated new methods of assessing drug safety include human tissues, DNA chips, virtual metabolism simulators and microdosing with PET and AMS scanners.

• A new study of animal and in vitro methods of predicting teratogenicity (potential to cause birth defects) spanning 40 years has found animal tests to be ineffective.

• 700 treatments for stroke have tested safe and effective in animals in recent years but not a single one has emerged as safe and effective for patients.

• 82% of doctors in an independent survey in 2004 were "concerned that animal data can be misleading when applied to humans" and 83% would "support an independent scientific evaluation of the clinical relevance of animal experimentation."

• The Toxicology Working Group of the House of Lords Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures in 2002 recommended that "the reliability and relevance of all existing animal tests should be reviewed as a matter of urgency."

• The recent Health Committee inquiry into the influence of the pharmaceutical industry concluded that the regulatory standards for new drug approval require urgent review.

See http://www.vote4animals.org.uk/edm92.htm and www.curedisease.net for more reasons why EDM92 is needed.

Sample Letter for the press

Dear Editor,

A recent survey of medical doctors showed that 83% would support an independent inquiry into the scientific merit of animal testing. In addition, many scientists have spoken out about the over-use of animal tests and the dangers to patients of relying on data from other species, which is frequently misleading.

Established medical groups - including the House of Lords Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures, the British Medical Journal and the Nuffield Committee on Bioethics, have requested an independent inquiry. Over 200 MPs have signed Early Day Motion 92 calling for this inquiry, including local MPs [insert names of MPs who have signed].

An inquiry could lead to valuable findings, safer medicine, and a reduction in the estimated 15,000 deaths caused each year in the UK by unforeseen reactions to dangerous drugs that passed animal tests.

Please contact your MP and ask him/her to sign EDM92 – Animal Testing of Drugs. You can do this online at http://www.writetothem.com/ or by post at The House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

Yours faithfully

Text of EDM92

EDM 92:"That this House, in common with Europeans for Medical Progress, expresses its concerns regarding the safeguarding of public health through data obtained from laboratory animals, particularly in light of large numbers of serious and fatal adverse drug reactions that were not predicted by animal studies; is surprised that the Government has not commissioned or evaluated any formal research on the efficacy of animal experiments, and has no plans to do so; and, in common with 83 per cent of general practitioners in a recent survey, calls upon the Government to facilitate an independent and transparent scientific evaluation of the use of animals as surrogate humans in drug safety testing and medical research."

Supporting an evaluation are: The Rt Hon Tony Benn, Dr Caroline Lucas MEP, Mike Hancock MBE, MP, Michael Meacher MP, Ann Widdecombe MP, Norman Baker MP

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.