Charity demands UK government calls time on animal experiments

Animal welfare charity, Naturewatch Foundation, is calling on the Government to commit to a timeframe to end animal experiments in the UK. In the light of Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing plans to make the UK a 'science superpower', calling science 'the great liberator', the charity is urging the government to focus the investment in humane, modern non-animal technologies (NATs), which are often quicker, cheaper and more accurate than traditional animal experiments.

The charity is urging Ministers to follow up on previous promises about the replacement, reduction, and refinement (3Rs) of the use of animals in research.

In 2010, the UK Government made a commitment to the 3Rs on the use of animals in research. In 2015, government agencies went on to publish a ‘Delivery Report’ to assess progress against the plan, followed by a Roadmap to help progress non-animal technologies in the UK up until 2030. There has been no further publicly available update to the roadmap since 2015.

Naturewatch Foundation Campaign Manager, Sarah Carr commented:

“As a charity committed to campaigning for animals, Naturewatch Foundation is appalled that the UK government continues to allow millions of innocent animals to be used in research in the UK every year. There has been huge progress in modern, groundbreaking science which does not use animals. In comparison, old fashioned animal research can add years to research programmes, not even be accurately predictive and be very expensive. On top of this, there is also an enormous economic opportunity for the UK to be a world leader in non-animal methods such as ‘organ-on-a-chip’ and computer models.”

Naturewatch Foundation has launched the campaign to urge UK government to prioritise their research investment into modern non-animal technologies.

Sarah continued, “The UK government has announced plans to increase research spending from nearly £15bn a year to £22bn by 2025. For millions of animals imprisoned in research laboratories around the country, science is not a liberator. It is their captor, torturer – and executioner. If the Government is serious about ending animal testing, they will announce their intention to direct the new research funding to non-animal methods.”

The facts

• Over 3.4 million scientific procedures involving live animals were still carried out in Great Britain in 2019.
• The procedures included 1.73 million experimental purposes and 1.67 million procedures for the creation and breeding of genetically altered (GA) animals.

If enough people who care about animals join the campaign, Naturewatch Foundation hopes it will be the impetus the government needs to prioritise non-animal technologies.

To support the campaign to call time on animal experiments, go directly to the charity’s e-action below or access it through the website at naturewatch.org.

Naturewatch Foundation’s campaign emails two Ministers – one responsible for Life Science government policy in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the other for the regulation of the animal testing laboratories based in the Home Office.

Whist progress has been made to advance the 3Rs, Naturewatch Foundation believes that urgent action is required for the UK to move forward more quickly and replace animals in experiments with modern non-animal technologies (NATs). The charity wants to see an ambitious updated plan from the Government with a timeframe for ending animal testing in the UK.

E-action: https://action.naturewatch.org/call-time-animal-experiments

Delivery report: Working to reduce the use of animals in research: delivery report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Roadmap: Roadmap_NonAnimalTech_final_09Nov2015.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)