Horses were involved in 10,600 experiments in 2017, an increase of 18 per cent from the previous year. Mice, rats and fish accounted for 87 per cent of experimental procedures.
CHRIS BAYNES: ‘Scientific testing on live animals has fallen to its lowest level this decade, but the number of laboratory experiments carried out on horses has increased sharply. Researchers carried out 3.79 million procedures on animals in Britain last year, according to new Home Office statistics… A four per cent rise compared to 10 years ago… Horses were involved in 10,600 experiments in 2017, an increase of 18 per cent from the previous year, when there were 8,948. The Home Office said this was “principally for the provision of blood products for diagnostic products”…
Mice, rats and fish accounted for 87 per cent of experimental procedures. Experiments on mice fell 10 per cent from 1.22 million in 2016 to 1.09 million in 2017, while those involving rats decreased by two per cent. However there was an eight per cent rise in use of fish, from 287,000 in 2016 to 308,000 last year… The number of experiments with dogs fell by by more than a fifth from 4,932 in 2016 to 3,847 last year, while procedures involving cats rose slightly from 190 to 198…
Animal rights campaigners said the government was not doing enough to reduce testing on animals and called for greater investment in scientific methods which do not involve living creatures. Hazel Jackson, science director of Animal Free Research UK, said: “This almost negligible decrease in the number of animal experiments is simply too little, too late. “Instead of continuing to pump money into outdated, cruel and often misleading animal research, more needs to be done to invest in the UK’s expert researchers who are developing innovative, human-relevant methods which are best placed to discover treatments for debilitating human diseases”.’ SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: