National Antivisection Society
Cutting Edge, Not Knife Edge
Posted: 15 March 2011. Updated: 19 July 2011
The NAVS is urging the UK Government to adopt progressive approach for animal testing as Government prepares to overhaul lab rules
The NAVS’ ‘Cutting Edge, Not Knife Edge’ campaign has received support from cross-party MPs.
In a show of unity, NAVS representatives and cross party politicians and peers gathered on Wednesday 13th July at Parliament, to request that the Home Office gears the legislation to replace animal use, while adopting the strictest animals protection legislation as the new EU Directive becomes law. The public is being encouraged to take part in the public consultation process. They were accompanied by a giant inflatable beagle to help bring further publicity to this important animal welfare issue.
Pushing for alternatives to animal research
This year the UK will begin the first major revision of animal experimentation rules in over 25 years as the government brings the new EU Directive on animal testing (2010/63/EU) into UK law. This is an opportunity for the government to seriously commit to the implementation of sophisticated replacements for animal experiments; advancing science whilst ending animal suffering.The NAVS has outlined ten steps the UK Government must take to tackle animal experiments:
- End household product testing
- No weakening of existing UK rules
- Commit to replacing experiments on monkeys in UK laboratories
- End the wild capture of monkeys by laboratory dealers
- Set clear limits on the pain laboratory animals can suffer
- Increase transparency on animal experiments – more public accountability
- Increase compulsory data sharing to prevent unnecessary experiments
- Establish a UK laboratory for the development and validation of non-animal methods
- Regular reviews to identify and replace animal experiments
- Ensure the effective implementation of non-animal methods – if there is an alternative it must be used.
What you can do
Please help push for the development of alternatives to animal testing.
Use of animals in research on the rise
The Home Office has recently published the annual “Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals” for 2010. The results show that there was an increase in the number of animals in the UK by 101,265 (3%) to 3,642,517, compared to 3,541,252 in 2009. There has also been an increase in the number of procedures by 105,186 (3%) to 3,724,726 compared to 3,619,540 in 2009.The National Anti-Vivisection Society has researched the figures and discovered that the number of procedures in new world monkeys has gone from 619 to 1,103 - a shocking increase of 78%. The NAVS has condemned the rise in animal experiments.
The campaign in Europe
The NAVS, together with the Lord Dowding Fund for Humane Research (LDF) and Animal Defenders International (ADI) led a major campaign in Europe during debates over the first revision of lab animal rules for 25 years. Calling for the adoption of advanced techniques to replace animals in scientific research, the NAVS secured many provisions in the Directive, which will now be brought into law in the UK.Jan Creamer, the NAVS Chief Executive said: “All of our key objectives are contained within the articles of the new Directive, so the government
has a remarkable opportunity to both protect laboratory animals and stimulate advanced scientific techniques, keeping Britain in the forefront of
international developments.
“It is really up to the Coalition Government whether they want UK science to be cutting edge or knife edge. Do they want to move the country towards
modern, reliable non-animal research techniques – literally the cutting edge of science – or stick with outdated animal research? Alternative methods can provide robust, relevant and accurate results faster and more cost effectively, without animal suffering.”
The Home Office will be undertaking a public consultation on the issue in the coming weeks and the NAVS will be launching a nationwide awareness
drive to engage the public in this critical process.
The deadline for transposition is November 2012 and all Member States will have to apply the provisions as of 1st January 2013.
