WORLD LAB ANIMAL WEEK 24 - 30 APRIL 2005: Horrific animal
suffering exposed in UK Lab at Inveresk, Scotland
"See his point of view for a day" - thousands of
supporters of the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) will hit the
streets for World Lab Animal Week, where people will be asked to see the
world through the eyes of a lab beagle for a day, and wear a special
unlocked padlock badge to show that they care. On International Lab Animal
Day itself, 24 April, supporters will observe 1 minute�s silence at midday
(12 noon) in memory of the suffering of lab animals worldwide.
NAVS has released a new report on a contract testing
laboratory, Inveresk laboratories, in Scotland, where leaked internal
documents and photographs provide a chilling insight into the world of
contract research, where animal experiments are conducted on behalf of
manufacturers of products such as drugs, chemicals, household and
industrial substances.
Inveresk offers its clients dogs, monkeys, rats, mice,
rabbits, pigs, guinea pigs, goats, cows, birds, and fish for
experimentation and claims to be responsible for approximately 1% of all
experiments taking place in the UK - over 25,000 animals every year.
The Inveresk report provides detailed information about
experiments on dogs, monkeys, rabbits and rats. It shows:
Extreme animal suffering and side effects arose from the
experiments, including: dogs foaming at the mouth, vomiting and bleeding
from the gums; rats choking to death on paint; monkeys subdued, hunched in
their cages, with swollen penises and scrota. Miscalculations in dosing
resulting in severe suffering, death and premature termination of studies;
Researchers running out of the test substance, half way through a study; A
test substance passing its expiry date before the end of the experiment,
whilst dosing of the animals continued; Animal tests being conducted when
human studies were already underway; Animal results ignored - human
studies continued after bad animal results; A drug accidentally pumped
into dogs' lungs instead of their stomachs. Every year, an estimated 100
million animals suffer and die in experiments in the world's laboratories.
For each recorded use of an animal, a further 2-3 animals have been killed
after a miserable short life in a cage, simply because they are surplus to
requirements.
However, the fundamental flaw of animal research is that
each species responds differently to substances, making animal tests
unreliable as a way to predict effects in humans.
NON-ANIMAL TESTS AND REACH EU CHEMICALS TESTS
The NAVS funds non-animal scientific and medical research
to the tune of around �300,000 a year - and has recently produced a report
for European Commissioners on advanced non-animal methods of testing
safety for the EU�s REACH chemical strategy.
NAVS.org
http://www.navs.org.uk/media/press/press_210405.htm
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Animals in Labs
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