British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection cautiously welcomes House of Lords interim report

Friday, 31 July 2009 12:00 AM

The BUAV has cautiously welcomed the preliminary conclusions of the House of Lords Committee looking at EU Directive 86/609 on the protection of animals used in experiments, but is now calling on the committee to include further key provisions prior to the publication of the final report in November.

The Lords report is the result of an analysis of submissions of oral and written evidence provided by all stakeholders including the European Commission, researchers, the pharmaceutical industry, academic and funding bodies representatives and animal protection groups including the BUAV.

The interim report shows that the Committee's position is in line with the European Commission proposals which contain some important provisions such as the requirement for all animal experiments to receive authorisation by governments and calls for strict limitations on the use of non-human primates (although the BUAV believes strongly, as does the public, that primates should not be used at all). The Lords has also rejected the common industry claim that researchers would move their research out of the EU if greater restrictions were placed on their industry.

However, the BUAV is also calling for the final report to contain, amongst other provisions the recommendation that prohibit the infliction of severe suffering on animals and the duplication of experiments. We hope that these and further improvements for animals in laboratories will be recommended when the full report is published, later in the year.

The Lords Committee has now submitted this preliminary report to the Home Office, the Government Department in charge of negotiating the UK position on the revised Directive. The Council of Ministers (EU Member States representatives) is currently discussing the European Commission proposals, and it is expected that it will adopt its position within the next few months.

For more information contact: Erin Seymour at 44(0) 20 7619 6978/Out of hours mobile: 07850 510 955 / Erin.Seymour@buav.org

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