Our reaction to a review of the use of monkeys in research

28.07.11

We have made the following initial statement in response to a review of the use of monkeys in UK medical research.
 
Led by Professor Sir Patrick Bateson, the 'Review of Research Using Non-Human Primates' was published yesterday - Wednesday, 27 July.


RSPCA senior scientist, Maggy Jennings, said:

It's deeply worrying that it's taken so many years for this report to emerge.

And now it's here it makes recommendations for good practice that people will have assumed would already be happening.

We agree with Bateson that for too long people have been happy to overstate the importance of experiments using non-human primates in the absence of the evidence to back up their emphatic claims.

The RSPCA has always had grave concerns about the use of non-human primates for ethical and welfare reasons.

This is the latest report in recent days* which emphasises the importance of a robust system of regulation for animal experiments.

This makes it all the more concerning that the UK government is considering weakening the laws currently in place in the UK.

 

Read the review on the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's (BBSRC) website:

www.bbsrc.ac.uk

 

*The Academy of Medical Sciences released a report examining the use of animals containing human material in biomedical research on Friday, 22 July 2011.

 

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