Sir – Richard Scrase (First Person, August 14) writes for Understanding Animal Research, a national organisation which, under one name or another, has been promoting animal research for over 100 years. You would not expect him to advertise its uglier truths.
As he says, it is illegal to use animals when other methods will work.
In making that rule, the 1986 Act expected such alternatives to proliferate, so that animal numbers would dwindle towards nought over the years. Yet still millions of them die in UK laboratories each year — more now than in 1986. The Act gave scientists special protection; they have not kept their part of the bargain.
Scrase says that the animals enjoy “very good conditions”. Before accepting this reassurance, readers should study under-cover investigations of laboratory life and death, including the recent one at Scrase’s own alma mater, Imperial College London.
Finally, Scrase says that anti-vivisectionists privilege laboratory animals over wild animals, pets and humans.
No: we care about the welfare of all animals, humans included, which is why we believe that none of them should be made slaves in the service of others. In this we follow the example of one of the earliest champions of animal welfare in the UK, William Wilberforce.
Sir David Madden, Dr Matthew Simpson, Voice for Ethical Research at Oxford
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