Maria Daines
|
9/2/2006 1:09:43 AM
Historic push for EU & US ban on monkey experiments...
Click banner to view footage of monkey lab -
Historic push for EU and US bans on monkey experiments
To mark International Primate Day (September 1st) organised by Animal
Defenders International, motions have been simultaneously placed before
the European Parliament and the US House of Representatives calling for
an end to experiments on non-human primates. Motions are also being
tabled in the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh
Assembly, and it is planned for other countries to follow suit.
This is believed to be the first time that a global animal protection
campaign has been initiated in the US and European Parliaments on the
same day, and signals an international drive to end non-human primate
experiments.
The ADI campaign has the backing of Twiggy, Alexei Sayle, Jenny
Seagrove, Carol Royle, and Uri Geller who this week have appeared
online urging people to back a primate test ban. The call is also
backed by over 150 animal protection groups around the world indicating
how momentum is gathering on this especially sensitive area of animal
research.
International Primate Day will be marked with activity in Europe and
the USA, with a new report on non-human primate experiments being
delivered to Tony Blair at 10.30am on Friday, 1 September. The new ADI
report will highlight not only the similarities between humans and
other primates, but the crucial differences that are so important in
biomedical research, as well as the non-animal techniques that could be
used instead.
Jan Creamer, Chief Executive of ADI: "Earlier this year, people in
the UK were horrified by the terrible side effects suffered by human
volunteers, caused by the test drug TGN1412. The drug had been given
to monkeys in doses 500 times stronger without such side effects."
The report is accompanied by a new video and photographs taken this
summer inside Europe's largest laboratory monkey supply facility.
The facility in Camarles, Spain currently holds several hundred macaque
monkeys from Mauritius but has a capacity for around 3,000. Europe
currently uses a total of approximately 7,500 macaques a year, so ADI
fear the centre could fuel an explosion in EU monkey experiments.
It's time for change
The EU is currently considering plans to overhaul animal
experimentation rules under EC Directive 86/609, including a possible
ban on experiments on chimpanzees and a review of the future of
experiments on monkeys in the EU. If the EU takes a stand as is hoped,
then it would be logical for the US to do the same.
A Written Declaration is being sponsored in the European Parliament by
UK MEPs David Martin, Vice-President of the European Parliament
(Labour-Party of European Socialists); Robert Evans (Lab-PES);
Sajjad Karim (Liberal Democrats-Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
for Europe); together with Portuguese MEP Paulo Casaca (PES), President
of the Inter Group on Animal welfare and Swedish MEP Carl Schlyter
(Green Party). The declaration supports International Primate Day and
urges:
"... the Commission to propose an end to all non-human primate
experiments in the revision process of Directive 86/609 EC on the use
of animals in scientific procedures, specifically: to prohibit
chimpanzee experiments and the use of wild-caught primates in the EU
and phase out all non-human primate experiments in the EU over the next
6 years."
Jan Creamer: "There is a genuine opportunity to end the suffering of
primates in laboratories. The EU has recognised this and MEPs have
before them the chance to take huge step forward. These animals are
our closest relatives; almost all of the primate species share more
than 90% of their genetic make up with us, with c
|
|