Pro-Test Blogs!

In a recent piece by the Guardian, it was reported that there has been a decline in animal rights attacks. Something we should surely be celebrating, but who is responsible? Well two parties, the police, who have worked diligently to keep dangerous activists off the street; and the public, who's support has left the animal rights groups without the moral or financial backing to continue the more violent actions.

It's nice to see that Pro-Test still warrants some column inches, and keep your eyes and ears open for more, as the upcoming date of the next Oxford rally is soon to be announced.

Tom

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5365206.stm

Professor Michael Reiss argues that there should be more transparency surrounding animal research, and that there should be retrospective cost-benefit examination of procedures. Couldn't agree more.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1957373,00.html

Yet more coverage of animal liberation founder Peter Singer's support for primate research.

Monkeys, Rats and Me: Animal Testing
BBC2, 9pm, 27 November, 80 minutes

This year, the building of the Oxford animal lab has triggered the
most important conflict between scientists and the animal rights
movement for a century.

It began on 30 November 2005, when building work restarted on Oxford
University's controversial £18 million animal experimentation
laboratory - after contractors had pulled out previously after a
campaign of threats and intimidation.

For the past year, RTS award-winning documentary director Adam
Wishart (the author of ONE IN THREE: a son's journey into the history
and science of cancer) has had a ring-side seat at the heart of the
conflict. It's a story about how scientists who had been too scared
to talk found a voice thanks to the campaigning efforts of a 16-year-
old. And about the animal rights activists, who have been prepared to
do anything in the face of an ever more determined Government.

The documentary has unprecedented access to all sides. It hears from
Professor Tipu Aziz, a brain surgeon and experimenter on monkeys -
one of the few Oxford scientists prepared to speak out. The programme
follows an operation - which was partly developed using monkeys - by
Prof Aziz on 13-year-old disabled boy. Will he walk again?

Cameras also follow animal rights activist Mel Broughton as he does
his utmost to prevent construction continuing. And Laurie Pycroft,
the 16-year-old founder of the Pro-Test movement campaigning for
animal experimentation.

Beyond the shouting there is a moral question. Oxford University has
given unprecedented access to the animal houses to reveal what
happens to monkeys in experiments, and to rats as electrodes are
inserted into their brains. Over the course of the film, Adam Wishart
attempts to determine if these experiments are effective? And even if
they are, are they ethical?

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