Sir Roger Gale MP Calls On Government to End Animal Testing
6 November 2024
Sir Roger Gale MP Calls On Government to End Animal Testing
Herne Bay and Sandwich – Yesterday, Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich, met with PETA scientists ahead of 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 the 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.
Images from the event are available here.
“The use of animals in experiments is not just an ethical issue; it is also a matter of scientific integrity and economic viability. We are at a pivotal moment where we must invest in better methods that do not rely on animals. To accelerate this much needed transition, the government must implement a strategic roadmap that outlines how we can replace the use of live animals with fully validated and internationally accepted in vitro alternatives that embrace better scientific solutions to the requirement to test new pharmaceutical products,” says Gale.
“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]
#