Experimental Shame

 

So, what ‘absolutely necessary’ research has Oxford University been carrying out on animals now?

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) recently conducted a review of published animal research in the UK. Their findings concluded, amongst other things, that:

* Extremely distressing, invasive and harmful experiments are being conducted on primates despite the ‘special protection’ afforded to them under UK legislation.

* Primates are still being used in experiments that are clearly frivolous or superfluous.

* Primates are being used where alternative approaches would better address the same or similar questions.

* Primates are often used to demonstrate the apparent validity of the research rather than to illuminate new information directly related to humans. At times, researchers and their sponsors are choosing to validate new primate ‘models’ rather than develop alternatives to using primates.

Oxford University was one of the institutions found guilty of the above practices. It was named and shamed in the BUAV report when it was discovered that researchers were carrying out the following experiment, amongst others.

At the University of Oxford, researchers wanted to investigate whether the source of ‘afterimages’ was in the eye or in the brain. In this shocking experiment, they used two monkeys who were anaesthetised and then kept paralysed with a poison throughout the study. Their skulls were sawn open and electrodes were inserted into their brains to record brain activity. Their eyes were forced open and focused on images on a TV screen for testing. The monkeys were kept in this paralysed state for five continuous days, during which time they were kept alive with intravenous fluids. At the end of the experiment, the monkeys were killed. This study was apparently carried out to confirm data already obtained humanely from humans.

The irrelevance and cruelty of this experiment is not an isolated case, as similarly barbaric and useless experiments have been published by the University stretching back over many years, a small number of which have been previously described by SPEAK.

But just as alarming is the thought of the experiments that don’t get published, either because of problems with the animals, the subject or the results. Oxford University apparently doesn’t keep records of the numbers of animals used in experiments that have not gone on to be published.

Yet in recent times researchers and scientists worldwide have been increasingly speaking out against the habit of scientists not publishing such experiments, either out of concern that they may lose a grant or stain their reputation or because they’re being funded by companies who don’t want negative publicity. This can result in other scientists unknowingly carrying out identical studies, causing even more animals to suffer.

Oxford University claims that it only carries out animal experiments when absolutely necessary, an argument we say can be proved to be meaningless and nonsensical - you only have to read the above experiment to see this is blatantly untrue. The fact that this institution also fails to publish all the results from its animal research - which would prevent even more needless suffering - shows that, once again, Oxford University is economical with the truth, and does not give a damn about the torment of animals.