Home Office figures released
The Home Office figures have now been released and show that more than 3.2 million experiments using animals were carried out in 2007. This is a 6% rise on 2006. There were significant increases in the number of tests using dogs, mice, fish and domestic fowl. There was no anaesthetic used in 61% of procedures and despite New Labours pre-election promises to reduce the number of experiments involving animals what has actually occurred is a 21% rise in these since they came to power in 1997.
There is still an appalling and lucrative trade in monkeys for laboratory research. This can in no way be morally justified. Cambodia is one of the culprits. The monkeys are caught and caged and then destined for the breeding farms that supply the animal research laboratories in Europe, America and China. Go to www.buav.org/news.php?p=482&more=1 to see film of the entrapment of these macaque monkeys. Hunters use catapults and beat the tree trunks with oars to scare monkeys out of the trees and drive them into nets.
The animals scream in terror, rigid with fear, but are grabbed by their tail, stuffed into bags and in this footage you can see how they are stored in the bottom of a boat before being sold to the dealer of a monkey farm. On breeding farms monkeys are kept in bare metal cages, including nursing mothers with babies, ready to be sold to the research industry. Pressure needs to be brought onto Cambodia to put a stop to these shocking and cruel practices. We also need to put pressure on Europe to bring an end to all primate testing and therefore stop the demand for these wild-caught monkeys. The BUAV are protesting to the King of Cambodia demanding that the trade in non-human primates for research stops immediately. The BUAV has also uncovered shocking evidence of the unjustifiable suffering of animals used to test food additives like sweeteners, flavouring agents and colourants. Last year’s official figures show a staggering rise of 36.8% in the number of animals used to test food additives in the space of just twelve months. These tests are primarily to help food manufacturers sell new or modified versions of their products. But we should be just using existing ingredients, there is no need for new ones unless non-animal alternatives are used to test them.
Organisations such as the Dr. Hadwen Trust invest in modern methods of testing which don’t involve animals. During 2008 they have:-
- Created computer models of the human heart to replace tests on dogs, rabbits and rodents
- Developed human cell cultures to replace animal research into wound healing and gut infections.
- Used advance hi-tech human brain scanning to replace invasive experiments on monkeys.
- Taken their message directly to MEPs in Brussels and to scientists at international conferences.
- Prioritised and published a scientific report on replacing animals in pain research.
- Initiated new projects to replace animals in cystic fibrosis, lethal infections, childhood tumours, asthma and brain research.
In contrast to this Volkswagen do not care about our feathered friends at all.
In cruel experiments they have decapitated European robins, garden warblers and zebra finches.
The Volkswagen Foundation is paying experimenters at German and U.S. universities to capture and use these beautiful songbirds in worthless tests that terrify the birds before they are ruthlessly killed for curiosity’s sake. Even before they arrive at the torture chambers, some birds die of fright during the capture and transportation process. The universities involved are the University of Oldenburg in Germany and Duke University in North Carolina. Songbirds captured from the wild and captive canaries and finches are exposed to different light cycles or are fitted with eye caps glued tightly to their heads to block out all light. Researchers then cut the birds’ heads off to slice their retinas out of their eyes and dissect and study their brains for clues to the secret of migration.
To take action write to Volkswagen of America’s new CEO, Stefen Jacoby asking for an assurance that no more experiments will be funded using the company’s money. Ask him instead to give money to projects which do not use animals in their research. He can be contacted at:
Stephen Jacoby
President and CEO
Volkswagen of America
3800 Hamlin Road
Auburn Hills
MI 48326-2829
Tel: (248) 754-5000
You can also email Mr. Jacoby’s assistant at: bettina.weidemann@vw.com
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