EDM 1704 'Use of Primates in Scientific Procedures'
The 2005/6 Parliamentary session has
now finished. This means that this Early Day Motion has
now lapsed. Parliament re-opened on 15 November 2006. During
the new 2006/7 session PAD will be promoting new EDMs and other
Parliamentary initiatives relating to hot animal protection topics.
This EDM calls for an end to the continuing use
of non-human primates in animal experiments both here in the UK
and in the EU. The motion states:
"That this House notes the use of thousands
of non-human primates each year in scientific procedures in the
United Kingdom and across the EU; further notes that their level
of sentience and highly developed social instincts make it extremely
difficult to meet their behavioural needs in a laboratory setting;
further notes that physical differences between human beings and
other primates may make it impossible to predict reliably human
outcomes from primate procedures; further notes public opposition
to the use of primates; calls upon the Government to extend the
current ban on the use of great apes to all primates as a matter
of urgency; and further calls on the Government to push for an
EU-wide ban on primate experiments as part of the impending review
of European Union Directive 86/609/EEC."
Around 10,000 non-human primates are used every year for scientific
experiments in the European Union (EU) - with over 2,700 of these
conducted in the UK in 2004. Every year, thousands of primates from
around the world are taken from the wild or bred in appalling captive
conditions to satisfy the research industry's demand for laboratory
subjects.
The similarities between human and non-human primates mean that
scientists have favoured their use in animal-based research for
many years. But it is precisely these similarities that make their
suffering so severe and their use as tools for research so unjustifiable.
Just like us, primates have complex social and emotional needs
which simply cannot be met by confinement in laboratories. Intelligent
and complex, primates have unique personalities; they solve problems
using creativity and experience, follow social rules, form long-lasting
relationships and, above all, share many capacities for both understanding
and suffering. Primates share with us the ability to remember past
events, to have desires, to anticipate and plan for future events,
and to form concepts. This means that they can be harmed not only
by the pain that scientific procedures frequently cause them, but
also by the stress of being in a laboratory environment - with all
the frustration, social isolation, and fear that creates.
About 70 per cent of all primate use in the UK and EU is for toxicology
testing - poisoning studies - rather than for research into human
illnesses. However, there are no regulations which state that non-human
primates must be the animal of choice - rather, they're used simply
through convention. In fact, far from being as central to scientific
research as is often claimed, primates account for only about 0.1%
of all procedures in the UK.
Many alternative techniques (revealingly, often known as 'advanced
methods') do exist - for example, computer systems, cell cultures,
human tissues, volunteer studies and population research. But their
use and further development requires investment and a commitment
to innovation. Progressive scientists are increasingly recognising
that this investment is repaid with the relevant, accurate and specific
data which animal models have failed to provide - because despite
the many similarities, non-human primates are just not similar enough
to humans to provide reliable scientific data.
Significant species differences make extrapolation unreliable and
unscientific. The fundamental flaw underlying much research of human
diseases in primates is that they simply do not suffer from the
same diseases as we do. Instead, researchers attempt to artificially
induce similar conditions - such as by brain-damaging monkeys so
that they exhibit the tremors found in people suffering from Parkinson's
disease. This is very different from studying a naturally occurring
disease in a human patient. Furthermore, the stress caused to primates
by confinement in laboratories and the procedures they are forced
to undergo causes physiological changes in their nervous systems,
affecting their bodies and skewing results. For all these reasons,
it is little surprise that any data obtained simply cannot be applied
to human patients.
Tellingly, after decades of research on primates, scientists have
failed to make significant breakthroughs in treating HIV or AIDS,
Alzheimer's Disease, or cancer - all human conditions which have
been thoroughly and pointlessly explored through primate research.
In 1997 the Government established a welcome policy ban on the
use of great apes - but otherwise the law doesn't do anywhere near
enough to protect primates from pain and suffering. Despite the
1986 Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act stating that primates should
only be used if no other species is suitable, the trend in primate
use is increasing, not decreasing. And although the Government 1997
a policy of banning the use of wild caught primates, exceptions
are sometimes made to allow wild-caught primates to be used.
It's clear that a ban is desperately needed. Not only would it
end the suffering of the thousands of primates that suffer in UK
and EU laboratories - but it would send a clear signal of intent
to an animal experimentation industry dogmatically wedded to the
animal model, despite the profound suffering it causes and the clear
evidence that it is failing, irrelevant and outmoded.
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