Popular Science News – there is a tendency to believe that animal testing is a thing of the past so to learn that it is at a 30-year high comes as a surprise. 3.8m procedures had taken place in the UK last year, some of which were on the same animal. This comes two years after the Coalition pledged to ‘work to reduce the use of animals in scientific research’ and 16 years after this principle was enshrined in law.
The majority of the increase is as a result of animals being genetically modified to carry certain genes or develop symptoms of human diseases. 71% of the procedures were carried out on mice. Fish accounted for 15 per cent of the total, rats made up 7 per cent and birds 4 per cent. 235 procedures were carried out on cats – a 26 per cent rise on 2010. All of this work related to improving feline nutrition and health.
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