Stop Clowning Around! PETA ‘Clowns’ Urge Government to Nix All Experiments on Animals
26 November 2024
Stop Clowning Around! PETA ‘Clowns’ Urge Government to Nix All Experiments on Animals
London – Today, PETA supporters dressed as “clowns” and wearing masks depicting the faces of former prime ministers – including Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, and Tony Blair – gathered outside 10 Downing Street to tell the government that there has been enough “clowning around” and to mandate an end to all experiments on animals. The action coincides with PETA’s delivery of an open letter to Sir Kier Starmer, asking for a government-led plan to phase out all experiments. PETA’s letter has been signed by more than 100 political figures, including Lord Sharpe of Epsom, and other supporters, including actor Jamie Bamber.
Images are also available here, and video footage is available here.
In June, the Labour Party released its manifesto, pledging to work towards phasing out testing on animals and to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society” to achieve this goal. PETA is calling on the party to develop a roadmap to end all animal experimentation, with an ambitious timeframe, clear milestones, and achievable goals.
“There’s no excuse for treating rats, mice, rabbits, and other feeling animals as living test tubes, especially when cutting-edge, non-animal methods are widely available,” says PETA Science Policy Advisor Dr Kimberley Jayne. “PETA is calling on officials to put ending the use of all experiments on animals solidly on the political and public agenda and to ensure that the government is held accountable for its commitments.”
Experiments such as the infamous forced swim test have already been singled out as scientifically and ethically questionable by the government, with Lord Sharpe promising to eliminate it from the UK when in post at the Home Office earlier this year. This work must be continued until every animal experiment is ended without delay. 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.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Lucy Watson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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