Ministry of Defence Shoots Pigs and Poisons Monkeys in Sickening Experiments
Details have emerged of horrific experiments on animals carried out by the Ministry of Defence at a laboratory at Porton Down military research base in Wiltshire last year. According to Metro, experimenters shot pigs with a bolt pistol then drained 30 per cent of their blood in an attempt to replicate battlefield injuries. They also poisoned marmoset monkeys with deadly biological agents, including Q fever, which has previously been manufactured as a biological weapon.
© Jørn Stjerneklar
93 out of the 116 marmosets were reportedly killed either during or after the experiments. This isn’t the first time the Ministry of Defence has been found to be conducting deadly tests on animals. In 2014, it emerged that 115 pigs were subjected to blast wounds from explosions at the same Porton Down facility over the course of three years.
Pigs and monkeys are intelligent, sensitive animals capable of experiencing fear and pain, not pieces of military equipment to be used and discarded. Exposing them to the horrors of warfare, especially while they’re powerless to defend themselves or escape, is extraordinarily cruel and unethical. It’s also an unreliable form of research, given the fundamental biological differences between species.
Rather than continuing to use these barbaric, archaic methods, the Ministry of Defence should upgrade to humane human-relevant technology, such as human organs-on-chips, high-speed computer models programmed with human data, and human-patient simulators that can breathe and bleed.
What You Can Do
Please speak out for animals in laboratories by signing our petition to Michael Fallon, the Secretary of State for Defence, calling for an end to tests on primates at the Ministry of Defence.
