National Antivisection Society
Progressive Science? Birmingham University Has Lamentable Laboratories
31 July 2008
The National Anti-Vivisection Society Lists Birmingham As Top of the League for Horrific and Unnecessary Animal Experiments
Birmingham – April 24th is World Laboratory Animal Day and this year the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is naming and shaming Birmingham 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 pioneer in academia.
Aston University have carried out tumour –inducing tests on mice that can only be described as something out of a Frankenstein movie. The purpose of the experiment was to observe muscle wasting in mice in order to observe amino acid dosing. All animals had a tumour inserted underneath the skin and had to endure the process of oral gavage (force-feeding) to receive the daily ‘medication’. Every laboratory animal suffers from constant fear over what is going to happen to them next, and the Birmingham researcher’s daily handling of the mice for the force-feeding and substance administration would caused major stress, not to mention the suffering of carrying a muscle wasting tumour.
Jan Creamer, Chief Executive of the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) said:
“The suffering and stress inflicted in this particular case could have been avoided as adequate information could have been gained from the study of humans. Much study is being carried out to research the multiple aspects of cancer. Those involving human cells, patients and epidemiological data on human lifestyles are most likely to yield results which are directly applicable to the many forms of human cancer.”
In other gruesome experiments:
- 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
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