Message from: British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV)
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Cambridge monkey lab may move to MOD site

Following reports that Cambridge University could abandon controversial plans for an expanded monkey brain research centre due to escalating costs, the UK government could now be considering placing the lab at the Ministry of Defence site at Porton Down.

In May 2002 Prime Minister Tony Blair publicly supported the new monkey lab in a speech to the Royal Society. On the same day the suffering of brain  damaged monkeys was exposed by an undercover investigation at the University's existing lab by animal rights campaigners the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV).

Since then local animal campaigners have launched a relentless and determined campaign to oppose the new centre.

Following a public hearing that ended in January 2003, Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott is now expected to make a final decision about the plans before Christmas.

In a new twist, a report in Science (vol 302 14 Nov 2003) announces that the Government could be considering moving the $50 million lab to the Ministry of Defence testing facility at Porton Down. That would mean the controversial lab, where thousands of monkeys would be used in brain damage experiments each year, would operate in total secrecy and out of the glare of public protest. The lab could be built at the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL). Porton Down already has a facility to breed monkeys for vivisection, so this would be the second facility connected to primate experiments to be placed behind military protection.

Wendy Higgins, Campaigns Director, British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) says:
"These are shockingly disturbing plans that reveal just how far the UK government is prepared to go to support animal experiments despite any opposition. If this proposal goes ahead, this will be the second time in two years that the government has ignored public concern about the ethical & scientific justifications for monkey experiments, and carried on regardless.

It is highly disturbing that rather than actually listen to the reasons why so many people oppose monkey experiments, this government prefers to hide primate vivisection away in a military camp so highly protected that ordinary people are prevented from exercising their right to protest. With such a display of arrogant disregard for public opinion, is it any wonder than an increasing number of citizens feel their only option is to abandon the political process and take to the streets instead?"

131 cross-party MPs have signed an Early Day Motion calling for a total UK ban on all monkey experiments. EDM 1307, launched in support of the BUAV's "Zero Option Campaign" to end UK primate vivisection, has been signed by MPs such as Ann Widdecombe (Con), Tony Banks (Lab), Norman Baker (Lib Dem), Harry Cohen (Lab), Ann Clwyd (Lab), Alex Salmond (SNP), Simon Thomas (Plaid Cymru) and Sylvia Hermon (Ulster Unionist Party).

 

The UK is the largest user of primates in experiments in the European Union.

Background notes:

 

·       The BUAV's undercover investigation at Cambridge University showed monkeys being routinely brain damaged by having their skulls sawn open and parts of their brain sucked out or injected with toxins.

 

·       Prime Minister, Tony Blair made his speech to the Royal Society on May 23rd 2002.

 

·       The BUAV believes that experimenting on non-human primates is not only ethically unsupportable, it is also scientifically unreliable. Brain damaging monkeys in out-dated and scientifically dubious experiments is not in the public interest. As monkeys don't naturally suffer the same brain disease as humans, superficial symptoms are artificially induced by damaging the brain. Using animals as 'models' of human disease is fraught with difficulties and there are dramatic differences in the way that humans and other primates react to supposedly similar brain conditions. For example, despite years of brain damaging monkeys, not a single effective neuroprotective drug for human stroke has been developed in animal models.

 

·       View the latest EDM signatures at: http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=1307

 

                                                                                          Home                        Return to Latest News