Response by the BUAV to a review by the Chief Inspector into aspects of non-human primate research at Cambridge University

Today the Home Office issued its report into selected findings of the undercover investigation by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) into monkey brain research at Cambridge University. You can download the Home Office report here (170KB PDF)

The BUAV has issued the following initial statement and will be preparing a further, more detailed response in due course.

"The BUAV is utterly appalled and deeply angered by the Home Office's complete dismissal of overwhelming evidence of animal suffering. Unsurprisingly the Inspectorate has yet again exonerated itself of any wrongdoing in the face of indisputable evidence to the contrary.

The Home Office has ignored stiff warnings from its own advisory panel the Animal Procedures Committee (APC) and more recently a House of Lords select committee that the Inspectorate is biased and self serving and yet here again we see the inspectorate being allowed to investigate itself and concluding that nothing is wrong. This is a rotten system set up purely to defend and protect those who experiment on animals as it has done for decades. This tradition of self-policing and self-protection has to stop.

Every time an undercover investigation reveals hideous animal suffering, licence breaches or opens up serious questions about the conduct of the Home Office the Government's response is either that it is an isolated incident or that all the allegations are untrue. How much longer is the public expected to tolerate this sham? The government's claim that it was correct to categorise as moderate suffering experiments where monkeys had the top of their skull sawn off and part of their brain sucked out is ludicrous in the extreme. This is further proof, if proof were really needed, that this government has no concern whatsoever with the suffering of laboratory animals and no concern either with the truth."

Michelle Thew
Chief Executive, BUAV

NOTES:
In May 2002 the BUAV launched the findings of a 10 month undercover investigation into monkey brain research at Cambridge University.