Reports and resources

The research animals department produces resources, reports, position papers and submissions on a range of issues relating to the use of animals in research and testing. These may be initiated by the research animals department to further the implementation of the 3Rs, or produced in response to consultations by government and other organisations. A selection of recent publications are included in this section. Staff have also published numerous papers in peer reviewed scientific journals (though many of these cannot be reproduced here for copyright reasons).

The two resources below are general ones. The first relates to the work of the RSPCA research animals department, and the second refers to the annual statistics on the numbers of lab animals used in research and testing in the UK. Reports on specific issues such as biotechnology, primates, vaccines, housing and care and ethical review can be found by accessing the relevant links on the left. 

The RSPCA and laboratory animals (PDF 722KB) 

This short leaflet describes the RSPCA’s strategy on the use of animals in research and testing.

 
Statistics on animal use in research and testing in the UK (data for 2011) (PDF 273KB) 

A short information sheet providing facts and figures relating to the use of animals in experiments in the UK (based on the latest available official statistics - for 2011, published by the Home Office in July 2012).