Norman Baker MP Member of Parliament for Lewes constituency

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2006 press releases

Local MP backs ban on monkey experiments

Norman Baker MP has joined the controversial debate over animal testing by adding his name to a parliamentary Motion backing a ban on the use of primates in experiments.

The motion comes in the wake of a new report published by the BUAV which details the latest scientific evidence showing the extent to which primates can feel pain, terror and loneliness as humans do. The report also shows that monkeys are not a reliable scientific model for testing drugs designed to treat human conditions.

In a recent survey 76% of the UK public are against any experiments that cause pain or distress to live animals. The motion, which coincides with the European Commission’s revision of the Directive governing animal experiments across the EU, has now received cross-party support from over 150 MPs.

Norman Baker says: "I believe that the basic needs of these sophisticated and intelligent animals can simply not be met in a laboratory setting – and that the physical differences between humans and other primates makes it impossible to reliably use them as 'models' for human conditions. I am pleased therefore be able to add my time to the campaign backing a ban on primate experiments in the UK and EU."

Alistair Currie, BUAV Campaigns Director, says: "It’s great news that Mr Baker is supporting the BUAV’s Next of Kin campaign to end primate testing. Using primates as disposable tools for research is not only morally wrong, but scientifically questionable as well. All primates feel pain as we do and are as distressed by laboratory life in the same way as we would be. The Government has already banned tests on the great apes: now they must take the next logical step and ban tests on all primates, without delay."

Notes:

1. In 2004, 4,208 experiments using 2,792 primates were conducted in the UK, according to the latest official figures. Around 10,000 each year are used across Europe.
2. The full text of EDM 1704 is as follows: "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 press for an EU-wide ban on primate experiments as part of the impending review of European Union Directive 86/609/EEC. As of 7 July 2006, 153 MPs had signed the EDM.
3. A BUAV national opinion poll undertaken by TNS in 2003 found that 76% of respondents thought the Government "should, as a matter of principle, prohibit experiments on any live animals which cause pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm".
4. On June 5 the BUAV released its ground-breaking new report – Next of Kin: the Use of Primates in Experiments. The fully peer-reviewed scientific report makes a clear case for a ban on moral and scientific grounds, arguing that their advanced cognitive and social abilities, and capacities for pain and distress, makes primates completely unsuitable as research tools. The report is also highly critical of the scientific worth of primate experiments. The report can be found here.