University of Oxford exposed as Leader in Animal Cruelty

Animal experiments at Oxford University have been exposed as some of the most horrific and unnecessary following research by the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) to mark World Lab Animal Week 2004 (April 24th - April 30th).

Monkeys and cats were used to determine brain functioning in visual tasks, despite critical species differences in visual processing (rendering the research extremely unreliable) - and the shocking truth that the experiment could have been more accurately performed through non-invasive research on humans.

During the recent study, monkeys were forced to wear a head restraining device and fitted to a primate chair, leaving the primate enclosed in a Perspex box with its head protruding from a small aperture into another box. One cynomolgus monkey and two cats had holes drilled into their skulls and probes inserted into their brains to record brain activity. Chemicals were put into their eyes so that they remained open for a visual test undertaken while they were unconscious.

"Universities should be at the forefront of new teaching methods but they are rapidly being left behind by more advanced non-animal techniques. It has long been recognised that there are clear species differences between animals and humans, but more animals than ever are suffering for science", said chief executive of NAVS, Jan Creamer.

"It's disgraceful that this barbaric and archaic research was inflicted on these animals unnecessarily."

Lab Animal Week was established by NAVS to help fight for the 100 million animals which suffer and die in 'unreliable, unethical and unnecessary' animal experiments every year in the world's laboratories. Recognised by the United Nations, Lab Animal Week is committed to raising funds to develop further highly effective non-animal research techniques, including those using sophisticated computer modelling and human-tissues technologies.

FIND OUT THE FACTS ON www.navs.org.uk

Background notes:

Today one million animals will die in laboratories. It's a staggering figure - 11 animals every second.

It is estimated that 100-150 million animals are used in experiments around the world annually. However, records show that more than two animals are killed as surplus to requirements for every animal used, and this is rising with GM experiments. That means another 240 million animals. Then there are animals killed in dissections or killed for their tissues or organs, for which there are not even estimates for the number used.

Animal Experiments in the UK:

In the UK, the most recent figures (Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain, 2002, published by the Home Office) reveal that 2.73 million experiments were performed on animals. Every 12 seconds of every day, an animal dies in an experiment in a British laboratory, whilst another two animals are killed (probably gassed) because they were not needed.

2.73 million experiments means that vivisection has reached its highest level since Labour came to power in 1997 and the figure looks set to continue rising. This is almost entirely due to year on year rises in experiments involving genetically modified animals -- one in four experiments in the UK involved genetic modification.

Number of animal experiments in the UK by species

Mice	1,720,253
Rats	509,647
Guinea Pigs	45,568
Rabbits	30,280
Cats	1,395
Dogs	7,964
Ferrets	1,034
Horses etc	8,002
Pigs	8,453
Sheep	33,610
Monkeys	3,977
Birds	138,347
Fish	181,953

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.