Lab monkeys 'scream with fear' in tests
Source >
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1407818,00.html
Sandra Laville
Tuesday February 8, 2005
The Guardian
Secret documents describing how some monkeys can
scream in misery, fear and anger during experiments
were produced in the high court yesterday as evidence
that the laws intended to protect laboratory animals
are being flouted.
Excerpts from Cambridge University internal papers -
one of several sites where primate research is carried
out - give laboratory technicians and scientists
advice on how to deal with problems during and after
experiments. Presented in court by the British Union
for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), they describe
occasions when primates are "screaming, trying to get
out of the box, defecating", and state: "This is an
angry animal."
Scientists and technicians are advised in the
documents to "punish" the bad habits of the monkeys,
stating that these bad habits include the normal
self-grooming.
Richard Drabble QC, for the BUAV, told the high court
yesterday that the documents contradict the general
public perception that animals are well cared for and
protected under the Animals (Scientific Procedures)
Act 1986.
Making an application for judicial review of the
legality of lab practices, he also alleged that
brain-damaged monkeys at Cambridge were not provided
with the 24-hour veterinary care which the
government's own guidance states is necessary.
David Thomas, the solicitor for BUAV, said: "Cambridge
staff work 9-5pm, so animals who had just been brain
damaged were left overnight without veterinary
attention.
"Some were found to be dead in the morning, some were
found to be in a worse condition. Yet there is an
obligation of licence holders to keep suffering to a
minimum. The whole system is very secretive and the
public does not get to see what is really going on."
The court challenge comes after the government's chief
inspector of animals dismissed the findings of a
10-month undercover investigation by BUAV into three
research programmes at Cambridge in 1998. BUAV claimed
they discovered monkeys which had the tops of their
heads sawn off in order for a stroke to be induced and
were then left for 15 hours without veterinary
attention.
But the court heard that after reviewing the licence
to Cambridge for the three programmes, and some of the
other 4,000 testing licences granted in England and
Wales, the chief inspector of animals gave a clean
bill of health to all establishments.
For the home secretary, Jonathan Swift said the
application for a judicial review should be dismissed.
He said the chief inspector of animals had concluded
that the decisions taken each time the licences were
granted had been sound and the home secretary had
accepted these findings.
Mr Swift said the granting of licences was
case-specific and highly fact-sensitive. The home
secretary had to "weigh the likely adverse effects on
the animals concerned against the benefit likely to
accrue as a result of the programme".
The three programmes Cambridge was carrying out
involved research into degenerative brain diseases
such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
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