Court review for animal testing
The UK government is being taken to court over its duty to
cut suffering to lab animals, as figures show another rise in
animal tests.
News of the judicial review coincided with the
release of official Home Office figures showing a moderate
rise in animal experiments last year. A total of three
million procedures were carried out on animals in 2006, a
rise of 4% on the previous year.
Scientists said tests were necessary to help cure
life-threatening diseases. The British Union for the
Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) announced it was taking the
Government to the High Court in London on Tuesday over the
fate of laboratory animals.
The case will seek a declaration that the government has
failed to ensure animal suffering in Home Office licensed
laboratories is kept to a minimum. The judge will be asked to
order the Home Office to re-examine its licensing
regulations.
In total, 2.95 million animals were used in procedures last
year in England, Scotland and Wales.
The majority of procedures - 83% - involved mice, rats and
other rodents. The remainder involved primarily fish (9%),
birds (4%) and reptiles/amphibians (1%). Dogs, cats, horses
and non-human primates receive special protection under the
Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. These were used in
less than half of 1% of the procedures. Alistair Kent,
director of the Genetic Interest Group (GIG) said the
statistics were good news for patients with serious diseases.
He commented: "Each experiment brings the day closer when we
no longer need to use animals, because then we will know
enough to work safely with patients."
Home Office minister Meg Hillier said: "Where animal research
is the only option, we will continue to ensure that the
balance between animal welfare and scientific advancement is
maintained." But the BUAV and others criticise what they say
is a fundamental failure on the part of the government to
ensure the use of animals in laboratories was reduced and
their suffering minimised.
The 4% rise in total procedures represents the greatest
increase in five years, and the highest number since 1991,
BUAV said. The number of procedures undertaken on laboratory
animals in 2005 was just under 2.9 million, a rise of about
1.4% on the previous year.
Court date
Michael Balls, emeritus professor of zoology at the
University of Nottingham, was an adviser to Margaret
Thatcher's during the drafting of the 1986 Animals
(Scientific Procedures) Act. The act was an attempt to reform
rules on animal testing, making individual research projects,
as well as scientists, subject to specific approval. "I don't
think the Bill would have become law in the form that it did
if it hadn't been believed by everybody that much more
progress would have been made in the last 20 years,"
Professor Balls told the BBC News website. "People accepted it on the basis of sincere promises that
there would be fundamental changes, and I don't think those
have happened."
Professor Balls, who is chairman of the Fund for the
Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (Frame), an
animal welfare charity, said it was "high time" the way
animal experiments are licensed in this country was re-examined.
The judicial review is due to start at 1030 BST on Tuesday at
the High Court. The Home Office strongly disputes the claims
by the BUAV. "The UK runs the strictest animal testing regime in the
world. Under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986,
animal procedures are only allowed where the research is
essential, there is no other way of obtaining the
information, and suffering will be kept to an absolute
minimum," a spokesperson said."The Home Office carries out its regulatory responsibilities
under the Act with great care and strongly contests the
claims made by the BUAV."
The three "R's"
But Michelle Thew, chief executive of Buav countered: "The
government's handling of the entire animal experiment
licensing system is deeply flawed.
The Home Office is this week charged with ignoring its duty
to ensure laboratory animal suffering is kept to a minimum
and pulling the wool over the public's eyes about the numbers
of experiments that cause substantial animal suffering in
laboratories up and down the UK."
The so-called three "R's" are supposed to underpin laboratory
rules and culture. They emphasise the need to reduce
suffering and find replacement methods that do not involve
animals. The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement
and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) has launched a
national survey of scientists who use animals in their research.
The aim of the survey is to determine what scientists
actually know about the three "R's" and how they use them in
their everyday work.
GM mice raise animal tests to highest level for 15 years
The number of animal experiments conducted in Britain has
reached its highest level in 15 years with more than three
million "procedures" carried out in 2006, according to
official figures released yesterday.
The Home Office announced that the number of experimental
procedures increased by 4 per cent last year compared with
2005, with more than 3.01 million animal experiments being
reported in Britain.
Most of the increase was due to the wider use of genetically
modified mice, which has continued to increase for more than
a decade as scientists create new animal models of human
diseases. About 83 per cent of the experiments involved mice,
rats and other rodents. Fish accounted for 9 per cent of the
procedures and birds 4 per cent, the Home Office said.
Dogs, cats, horses and monkeys, which are given special
status under the law, accounted for less than half of 1 per
cent of the total number. Experiments on monkeys declined by
10 per cent compared with 2005.
The figures came as the British Union for the Abolition of
Vivisection (BUAV) mounted a High Court challenge to the
Government, arguing that ministers are failing in their legal
duty to ensure that animal suffering is kept to a minimum.
The BUAV cited a statement from Michael Balls, the father of
the cabinet minister Ed Balls, who said that current
legislation has failed to curb animal suffering. Professor
Balls was the chairman of the Fund for the Replacement of
Animals in Medical Experiments and helped draw up the 1986
animal procedures Act. "I had great hope that the system
would ensure that animal use was reduced and suffering would
be minimised," he said.
Many commentators argue that the GM animals have generated
new ways of investigating incurable human disorders. "Today's
announcement is good news," said Alastair Kent, the director
of the Genetic Interest Group, which lobbies for families
affected by inherited disorders. "Each experiment brings the
day closer when we no longer need to use animals ... Then we
will know enough to work safely with patients," he said