National Antivisection Society
MRC conflict of interest exposed:
Posted: 5 June 2006
‘Trojan horse’ call for ape research used to justify primate experiments
NAVS (The National Anti-Vivisection Society), Britain’s oldest and most established campaigner against animal experiments, today condemns the use of primates in experiments. This comes hard on the heels of an MRC (Medical Research Council) publication, ‘Primates in Medical Research’, in which scientists from the MRC and the Wellcome Trust seek to justify their work with primates.
Jan Creamer, NAVS chief executive, commented: “NAVS does not believe the MRC publication is a serious call for chimpanzee experiments in the UK but rather a strategy to increase monkey use. Significant numbers of primates are already being used in pharmaceutical and neuroscience research, contributing to the UK’s regretted reputation as the vivisection capital of Europe.”
As no UK labs have used apes for 20 years, there are currently no labs with the facilities for such animals.
However, Oxford University’s new facility, which is being built, will house primates. NAVS says this is a conflict of interest for Colin Blakemore head of the MRC who will experiment on monkeys there.
Last year the UK government signed a UN declaration with African nations to try and stop genuinely hungry people consuming chimps to extinction. To use these animals in labs would be at odds with such conservation measures.
The UN Environment programme says that great apes face extinction within the next 50 years, if not sooner.
