Mike Wood MP Calls On Government to End Animal Testing
6 November 2024
Mike Wood MP Calls On Government to End Animal Testing
Kingswinford and South Staffordshire – Yesterday, Mike Wood, Conservative MP for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, joined over 30 other MPs at a special reception hosted by PETA at the Palace of Westminster to show support for – and pressure the government to develop – a plan to phase out animal experimentation. Titled “A Roadmap for Non-Animal Science in the UK”, the reception showcased PETA’s Research Modernisation Deal, a report created by PETA scientists that provides policymakers with a detailed strategy for ending experiments on animals and accelerating the uptake and further development of non-animal methods.
The event was sponsored by Bob Blackman CBE MP and attended by more than 30 other MPs, including John McDonnell MP and Adrian Ramsay MP, as well as Battlestar Galactica and Law & Order: UK star and long-time PETA friend Jamie Bamber.
“As a country that prides itself on compassion and respect for animals, we must now confront the reality of animal experiments in the UK. Just as we’ve raised standards with legislation like the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act and the Ivory Act, it’s time to do the same for animals in laboratories. We need a clear, responsible plan to phase out animal experiments, and we owe it to future generations to make this a priority,” says Wood.
“Every year, millions of mice, rats, fish, dogs, monkeys, rabbits, and other animals are caged, subjected to physical and psychological torment, and killed in unreliable experiments that do little to advance human health,” says PETA Science Policy Advisor Dr Kimberley Jayne. “PETA is calling on the government to commit to ending all experiments on animals. It must stop wasting money and lives on archaic animal experimentation and switch to modern research methods that actually help people.”
In 2023, more than 2.68 million animals were bled, poisoned, deprived of food, isolated, mutilated, or otherwise subjected to psychological suffering and physical pain in British laboratories. Millions more were bred and discarded as “surplus” because, for example, they were not of the desired sex or lacked certain disease characteristics. The government has committed to working towards phasing out animal testing, and PETA urges everyone to hold it to this promise by demanding a government-led roadmap for ending all experiments on animals.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Lucy Watson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
#