National Antivisection Society
Progressive Science? Cambridge University Is Stuck In the Dark Ages Claim Group on World Laboratory
31 July 2008
The National Anti-Vivisection Society Lists Cambridge Top the League of Shame for Horrific and Unnecessary Animal Experiments
Cambridge – April 24th is World Laboratory Animal Day and this year the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is naming and shaming Cambridge University as among the leading universities guilty of horrific and unnecessary animal experiments. As a university that considers itself a pioneer in the field of science their torturous experiments are far from progressive, say the campaigning group, who cite that there are numerous alternative research methods that should be implemented by any university that sees itself as a leader in academia.
The Department of Experimental Psychology at Cambridge have used 25 Marmoset monkeys in the observation of memory recall before and after brain surgery. These poor primates were literally at the disposal of the researchers who performed painful and intrusive procedures using toxic chemicals; sucking out sections of their brains with blunt needles. NAVS state that in this case scientific observation was clearly lacking as the further ordeal of traumatic brain surgery was carried out on a couple of the monkeys even after researchers had observed that the lesions they had made were not large enough to warrant the individuals continuation in the study.
Jan Creamer, Chief Executive of the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) said: “It’s disgraceful that Cambridge University is sanctioning cruel and unnecessary tests on animals when research data already exists. It has long been recognised that there are clear species differences between animals and humans, but more animals than ever are suffering for science, despite proven alternatives to animal experiments”.
In other gruesome experiments:
- Monkeys were brain damaged to simulate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (Oxford University)
- Dogs were cut open to test synthetic vein grafts (University College London)
- Guinea pigs were gassed with ozone to study lung disease (Cardiff University)
- Pigs had heart surgery to compare a new drug to aspirin (University of Strathclyde)
- Pigs had their livers microwaved to test a probe for liver tumours (University of Bath)
- Mini-pigs were given cystitis to look at kidney scarring (University of Newcastle Upon Tyne)
- Lambs were cut open and infected with bacteria to assess colonisation in the intestine (University of Bristol)
All the animals were killed at the end of the experiments
NAVS grants awards totalling £300,000 each year to innovative non-animal studies through its research wing, the Lord Dowding Fund. There are several professors currently carrying out non-animal research with LDF grants in the areas of Neuroscience, toxicology and learning technology. All these research methods are documented in the LDF magazine New Science which is a publication covering the advanced techniques in the world of research without animals.
ENDS
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