National Antivisection Society
September 2007
25 September 2007
In discussion with one of our Declaration sponsors Slovenian MEP Mojca Drcar Murko.
What better way to start this occasional blog than to talk about the fantastic news of the European Parliament’s backing of our Written Declaration 40/2007 to end the use of primates in research.
Campaigning in September kicked off on Sunday 2nd, arriving at Strasbourg Airport not long before midnight, hauling several hundred DVDs, leaflets, door hangers, scientific reports, and a display stand. We had come so far with this momentous Declaration – but we still needed almost 100 signatures to reach the finish line.
The next few days were a blizzard of activity – our Strasbourg lobbying team – Tim, Helder, Evgenia, Jeroen and I pounded the corridors; we did cold-calling, leafleting, meeting MEPs and their assistants and ran an exhibition stand. We had fantastic support from Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, who lobbied their hearts out in support of this unique proposal.
Back in London, our team – Lisa, Clare, Jessamy and Christina – sent out hundreds of faxes to MEPs who had yet to sign. In Colombia, our South American campaign team started contacting all the Spanish-speaking MEPs.
As each debating session began, it was very exciting to be standing outside and speaking to people about the proposal, and then see them actually go over and sign! Flurries of signatures from different countries started to sign up as we saw the fruits of our targeted lobbying. But would it be enough? By Wednesday morning we were close; sick with anxiety and afraid to jinx it by saying we were winning. Then, targeted visits to the Portuguese, French, Greek, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Dutch MEPs secured a few more signatures – and suddenly we were there.
By Wednesday afternoon, we hit the magical 393 signatures – half of the Parliament had signed. Enough for it to be adopted as a policy of the Parliament. However, the commitment of the MEPs on this issue was impressive – they simply kept signing until the Declaration closed. The number of signatures surged to 433 before the Declaration closed.
That night, the meeting of the MEPs’ Intergroup for Animal Welfare, chaired by Neil Parish MEP, was in buoyant mood, with spontaneous applause for the Declaration.
This is a huge breakthrough for us; it is set to shape our campaigns for an end to the use of primates all over the world, and will spearhead the campaign to wring more for animals out of the European Commission’s for the review of Directive 86/609 on animal experimentation. So it was back to London on the Thursday to debrief and regroup! Contragulations to everyone who worked so hard for this.
Here is a little summary of the campaign.....
We launched Written Declaration 40/2007 on World Lab Animal Day, 24 April 2007 with the support of our fantastic sponsoring MEPs, Jens Holm, Rebecca Harms, John Bowis, Martine Roure and Mojca Dr?ar Murko.
http://www.ad-international.org/mmap/go.php?id=810&ssi=60
About to address the MEPs’ Intergroup meeting at the European Parliament with Neil Parish MEP and Delphine Bourgeois from Eurogroup.
Six months of hard lobbying followed; we attended every plenary session in Strasbourg and Brussels; wrote and distributed a technical response to the EU Scientific Steering Committee’s policy document supporting primate use in all the key languages and knocked on hundreds of doors in Strasbourg and Brussels.
The response of the MEPs was nothing short of fantastic – the massive 433 signatures represents 55% of the Parliament. We are told this is the third-largest ever number of signatures on a Declaration, and the largest number for an animal issue.
If you asked your MEPs to sign and they did – thank them. It is really, really important that you thank them and acknowledge what they have done. This is an historic decision. You can see who signed by country:
http://www.ad-international.org/mmap/go.php?id=827&ssi=60
What courageous, determined people in the European Parliament to vote to save our primate cousins, in the face of all the pressure they get from vested interests!
Now that the Declaration has been adopted, we await the response from the European Commission. Although this is a first step and we know that there is a long way to go yet – what a great start! We have built a body of support that we believe can turn the tide for the primate nations, worldwide.
If you are talking to your Member of the UK Parliament, or the Scottish Parliament, or the Welsh or Northern Ireland assemblies, or one of your Members of the European Parliament, keep this issue in their minds
Here are some of the key points that you can make:
- Over 10,000 primates are used in experiments each year in EU laboratories, with the UK being the highest user (3,108), followed by France and Germany. Yet in a public consultation organised by the European Commission, more than 80% of respondents considered the use of primates in experiments as “not acceptable”.
- People feel a particular concern for primates; bearing in mind that almost all primate species share more than 90% of their DNA with humans and it is acknowledged that the primate species have the capacity to suffer greatly in captivity.
- 26% of primate species are in danger of extinction and wild-caught primates continue to be used in laboratories; in addition it may be difficult to protect primates from threats such as human consumption if it is perceived that these species are used freely by Western academic institutions for experimentation.
- Advanced technology and techniques now provide alternative methods that are proving to be more efficient and reliable than primate experiments, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), micro dosing, computer modelling or tissue and cell culture.
- It is important to bear in mind that despite genetic similarities, there are important key differences (including in the brain and the immune system) between humans and other primates, and primate experiments cannot match the precision of human-based study using advanced scientific techniques.
With Helder Constantino, our Senior Political Officer on our information stand inside the Parliament.
Why not write a letter to your local paper about this?
See our scientific report on primate tests
Of course the next steps in Europe will be to continue the campaign throughout the Committee stage, as well as the debate at the Council of Ministers level. During this time, this new policy is vulnerable to amendment; there will be lobbying, and intense pressure from those with a vested interest in the laboratory primate business. We will have to fight every inch of the way. Every single supporter of NAVS, ADI and Lord Dowding Fund has a role to play.
But the battle to save the non-human primate nations is joined. Now is our time.
In the UK Parliament, we have MP Colin Challon’s Early Day Motion – EDM 270 – which is based on the same principles as the Written Declaration in Europe. This closes in November, so any signatures we can get will help.
Although the European Parliament resolution is slightly different from the UK Parliament’s EDM 270, in that it does not set a time limit for an end to the use of primates, instead, it asks for a timetable to be set – however, we are still urging UK MPs to sign this important motion in order for the UK Parliament to lay down a set of principles to support the moves in Europe.
http://www.ad-international.org/mmap/go.php?id=681&ssi=60
After decades of campaigning, it is an honour to be part of movement that is now on the verge of changing the relationship between humans and non-humans forever. If we can break the last barrier of prejudice, the future for our planet and those who share it with us, would feel more secure.
It has been said that every movement for social change goes through three phases – ridicule, debate, acceptance – after 30 years of campaigning, it seems to me that we are entering the final phase.
In 1928, author Henry Beston wrote of creatures of the wild, “We patronise them for their in completeness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they are more finished and complete, gifted with extensions of their senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
We are battling for the survival of the non-human primate nations. Our closest relatives in the animal kingdom are teetering on the precipice of extinction, waiting for us to make our next move. Let’s not let them down, for the sake of both humans and other animals. If we can save them, maybe we can save ourselves.
Jan
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