Correcting some misunderstandings about animal research
Some of our members have been approached with a series of statements and assertions about the use of animals in research. Here we look at the factual basis of the claims.
If you have any questions, please contact cmagee@uar.org.uk.
Emailed statements and assertions
I am writing to your Organisation as I understand that the research conducted on your behalf involves experiments/vivisection on animals, and I would therefore like to discuss none (sic) animal method alternatives and human based new approach methodologies (NAMS).
Last year 3,056,243 animal experiments were conducted in laboratories in the United Kingdom,
Correct number, although this is the figure for Great Britain rather than the UK.
2,204 of those experiments involved monkeys, this was a 6% rise on the previous year,
Incorrect, 2,795 monkeys were used in 2021, which is a 22% rise from 2020’s 2289.
|
2021 |
Great Britain |
Primate |
Marmoset and tamarin |
116 |
|
2021 |
Great Britain |
Primate |
Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) |
118 |
|
2021 |
Great Britain |
Primate |
Cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis) |
2,561 |
All the monkeys were imported from Countries such as Africa and Asia.
Incorrect. The UK is home to the MRC Centre for Macaques which breeds monkeys for experiments. It is one of several government-owned and run primate breeding facilities in the UK, which between them provide the monkeys used in all government-funded (including all academic) research.
Only primates used commercially, for example, in drug-safety testing, are imported. In 2021, 456 of primates used were born in Asia and 1,524 in Africa, specifically the island of Mauritius. Mauritius has a problem with non-native monkeys which destroy its unique flora and fauna. The macaque, introduced to the island by Dutch sailors in the 1600s, has seen its population explode to around 35,000 animals. Some of these animals escape being culled by becoming breeding stock instead. No monkeys are taken from the wild directly into UK labs, instead the imported monkeys are the decedents of once-wild breeders.
This involved an arduous journey for them, which would have been fraught with fear, anxiety, and suffering but this was only the beginning of their pain.
Incorrect. Live animal transport is regulated under CITES so that live animals will be so prepared and shipped as to minimize the risk of injury, damage to health or cruel treatment. All parties in the transport chain must abide by the IATA Live Animals Regulations https://www.iata.org/en/publications/store/live-animals-regulations, which Humane Society International describes as the “...global standard for transporting animals by air in a safe and humane manner.”
In 2021 there was a 24% increase in the number of experiments on dogs.
Incorrect over any timescale, whether counting procedures or the number of animals used for the first time. The was a small increase of 3% 2019-2020 and a small decrease of 6% 2020-2921.
|
Year |
Dogs used for first time |
Procedures |
|
2010 |
3,727 |
5,782 |
|
2011 |
2,865 |
4,552 |
|
2012 |
3,214 |
4,843 |
|
2013 |
3,554 |
4,779 |
|
2014 |
2,742 |
4,107 |
|
2015 |
3,405 |
4,643 |
|
2016 |
3,530 |
4,932 |
|
2017 |
2,496 |
3,847 |
|
2018 |
2,909 |
4,481 |
|
2019 |
2,679 |
4,227 |
|
2020 |
2,754 |
4,340 |
|
2021 |
2,579 |
4,227 |
All data https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-of-scientific-procedures-on-living-animals
What has risen by 24% is the number of pet dogs being given up to shelters because their owners don’t want them anymore. Numbers of dogs entering UK shelters each year are thought to be around 664,000. Animal shelters are secretive about how many animals they euthanise but estimates range from a quarter to a third of animals entering their care.
Dogs are perceptive, cognitive, intuitive, and capable of positive empathetic emotions. The United Kingdom is known to be an animal loving nation,
Correct. Animal experiments are undertaken in the full knowledge of dogs’ sentience, nature and status in society.
But most of the public are unaware that animal experiments are taking place.
Incorrect. Polls indicate that almost everyone knows that animals are used in experiments, but many do not feel well-informed about how animals are used. Worse, most of those who feel well-informed are in fact misinformed, having believed animal rights myths.
A research paper conducted and published by Dr Jarrod Bailey, Science Director at Animal Free Research UK concludes that dogs should never be used in experiments as they are sentient emotional beings.
Irrelevant. All vertebrate mammals are assumed to be sentient by UK regulators. Dr Bailey is an animal rights activist and there are no scientific grounds to ban the use of sentient animals.
Today outdated scientific research continues and this type of approach is failing to advance medicine, it is failing all of us.
Incorrect. For example, all vaccines for COVID19 relied on animal studies. Of the mRNA vaccines advanced by Moderna and Pfizer, patents date back several years to 2003, but the key discoveries that allowed their development were made in frogs in 1988 and mice in 1978. Work in monkeys and mice, such as can be seen here and in the publication history of Professor Sarah Gilbert (who led the AZ/Oxford vaccine team) built upon this over the decades between the Millennium and the COVID19 pandemic. This work is thought to have saved 6.3million lives just in its first year. Science is incremental, with a picture building over many decades to provide an eventual discovery, but the research paradigm is far from failing.
There is substantial scientific evidence that conducting animal experiments does not and cannot predict human safety or efficacy.
Incorrect. All measures of animals’ effectiveness in safety testing show extremely high value. The most authoritative study is thought to be from the IQ Consortium, and shows that dogs’ ability to predict human safety (NPV) is high across most target systems:
|
Organ category |
Dog to human safety prediction |
|
Pulmonary |
96% |
|
Biochemical |
95% |
|
Renal |
95% |
|
Ophthalmology |
94% |
|
Haematology |
93% |
|
Cutaneous |
91% |
|
Musculoskeletal |
91% |
|
Cardiovascular |
91% |
|
Nervous system |
90% |
|
Liver |
88% |
|
Gastrointestinal |
76% |
Animal rights activists often refer, instead, to their own, larger data set, although this barely changes the findings:
|
|
Median PPV |
Median NPV |
|
Dogs |
70% |
94% |
|
Rats |
91% |
98% |
|
Mice |
93% |
96% |
|
Rabbits |
99% |
99% |
They also prefer to use Likelihood rations instead of predictive values but these, again, show the high value of animal data.
|
Pre-test probability |
Pre-test odds |
Post-test odds |
Post-test probability |
|
10% |
0.11 |
3.16 |
76% |
|
20% |
0.25 |
7.11 |
88% |
|
30% |
0.43 |
12.18 |
92% |
|
40% |
0.67 |
18.95 |
95% |
|
50% |
1.00 |
28.43 |
97% |
|
60% |
1.50 |
42.65 |
98% |
|
70% |
2.33 |
66.34 |
99% |
|
80% |
4.00 |
113.72 |
99% |
|
90% |
9.00 |
255.87 |
100% |
As an animal advocate and lay member of the public I demand like many others an urgent shift which will be impossible to ignore. There are new human-based animal free research methodologies, these offer an innovative and exciting new approach to research that is efficient and cost effective, they reflect the human body and how the cells and organs work and respond to disease and treatment.
Incorrect and irrelevant. Animal-free methodologies are being developed and are close to being usable but are not yet a replacement. Bioscience is not entirely about human medicine and many of the things that are being investigated are around the differences between humans and other species, for instance the healing abilities of zebrafish or the fact that some animals do not get certain diseases.
The biosciences is already built upon the three pillars of non-animal bench research, animal research and human research and scientists already mostly use non-animal methods. Animals are only used when these other methods cannot be used.
Many many animals have died in laboratories. The true number of animals forced to suffer, and die may never be known but it is likely to be in the millions if not higher. The number does not reflect the silent suffering they endure, alone.
Incorrect. The UK publishes annual statistics of how many animals of what species are used for what purpose and what degree of physical or mental suffering, if any, was endured. Most suffering is mild or sub-mild and animals are not kept alone unless this is species-appropriate or for their own good, or because a procedure requires it temporarily. In all cases, as strong justification would need to be made for an animal to be on its own. The first such report was issued in 1877 and pertained to the 1876 figures.
Healthy young animals are bred in inadequate conditions before they are transported to laboratories.
Incorrect. Laboratory animals are bred especially for laboratory use and are subject to far stricter conditions than regular breeders.
Just today as I write two vans of puppies have left the breeding facility MBR Acres in Huntingdon for them the nightmare begins. They endure unimaginable suffering as they are injected, force fed, and mutilated in the name of science and research.
Correct and incorrect. Some 75% of procedures on dogs are mild, such as a blood test, while they are alive. Another 25% are moderate, which implies temporary distress or discomfort, such as would be caused by a surgical procedure, under anaesthetic, that the animal recovers from. Neither constitutes ‘unimaginable suffering’ or a nightmare. They will not be mutilated while alive but may have a feeding tube as is standard veterinary practice and might receive injections for a range of reasons including veterinary care.
This is just a snapshot of their suffering, this is not acceptable, and your Organisation is culpable as you continue to contribute to this suffering.
Correct and incorrect. The points in this email are largely made up. However, limited suffering is mandated by charities in the cause of ending greater suffering in the context that there is no other way to conduct the research
The public, the taxpayer, those that offer charitable contributions are not aware this is happening every single day six animals are used in research every minute of every single day in the United Kingdom but slowly the tide of feeling is changing as more awareness is gained from the many groups set up to inform and educate such as Exposing Cruelty.
Correct and incorrect As mentioned above, almost everybody understands that animals are used in medical research. Misinformation on how animals are used is thriving which is more recently driving misplaced opposition.
Revolutionary new human-based research is the future.
Perhaps, however, we live in the present. This also has little to say about veterinary and environmental research.
I am therefore writing to ask that you reconsider your contribution to animal testing and that you consider new methodologies. Please consider contacting Animal Free Research UK to choose kinder more relevant science. https://www.animalfreeresearchuk.org/
Where non-animal technologies that have been proven to work, they are required to be used instead of an animal by law. There is also no law against using alternatives if a researcher wants to. If they are not being used, they do not work yet or cannot be applied to a particular problem at this time.
Charities like Animal Free Research UK are relatively small and have an extremely limited chance of moving the biosciences into some new era. Much larger organisations like the NC3Rs have both 10 times the budget and access to superior data as well as being able to collaborate with academia, industry and regulators international and domestic. It is, for instance, currently leading a project to advance non-animal computer models to the point they can replace dogs and monkeys in regulatory tests.
