More than Just a Number?

Animal Experiments at Oxford University

In 2010 a whopping 160,042 animals suffered and died at the hands of the University's researchers, which is the largest amount in many years. Last year, 2011, saw a further 156,215 individuals being added to the pile of the dead and mutilated. To put this in perspective, this is the equivalent of over 427 animals being tortured and killed every single day.

However, things aren’t all as they seem...'There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies and statistics', and Oxford University is no exception in the statistics it reveals. It clearly states in the FOI disclosed that the numbers of primates who underwent procedures and experiments was 41 in 2010 and 22 in 2011. However, this does not tell the whole story as it doesn’t include what the University describes as 'non-invasive' studies, which are listed separately.

In 2010 and 2011 an added 80 and 55 primates respectively were used for what the University describes as 'behavioural work – sitting in front of a computer screen doing learning and memory games for food rewards'. However, the BBC documentary Monkeys, Rats and Me, which filmed inside Oxford University, showed exactly what happens to animals who go through this rather pleasant-sounding treatment: they are forced into a tiny cage – called 'the chair' by the researchers – which is so tiny that they can hardly move. They are then placed in front of a computer for hours at a time and have to press things in the right order to receive any water or food. The animals are desperate for food and water by this time, as they have been deprived of them as an incentive to learn.

Why those primates forced to do so-called 'behavioural work' are not included in the number of animals experimented on is not made clear by the University. They are animals and they are being forced to take part in experiments, so why are they excluded from the list? Could this be an attempt by Oxford University to make the number of primates used in experiments appear smaller than it actually is?

The next obvious question is just how many more animals of different species are not listed in the statistics because they too are considered by the University to be insignificant, having also been used in 'non-invasive' studies. As shocking as it is, could the total number of animals that have undergone any kind of procedure, whether invasive or non-invasive, be even higher than the 156,000 given? And if yes, just how many extra animals are we talking about?

Then there’s the fact that these lists don’t include those animals who were killed or died outside of any experiments, the sick, injured or those who were surplus to requirements, who would have been killed without a second thought and whose numbers the University are not obliged to reveal.

All in all, the facts remain the same – Oxford University causes the suffering and death of thousands upon thousands of animals whose only crimes are that they were unlucky enough to be born in the wrong place at the wrong time.