SHOCKING TESTS EXPOSED INSIDE HUNTINGDON LIFE SCIENCES UK LAB

[Guest guest]

Please find details of our latest undercover investigation. The full

film can be viewed at www.savetheprimates.com

 

SHOCKING TESTS EXPOSED INSIDE HUNTINGDON LIFE SCIENCES UK LAB, AS EU

CONSIDERS ENDING PRIMATE EXPERIMENTS

 

4 February 2009

 

Today a groundbreaking new documentary revealing the all too visible

distress that lab primates face on a daily basis is revealed by

Animal Defenders International (ADI). The `Save The Primates'

investigation exposes every aspect of the global primate trade across

three continents, including one of Europe's largest testing

facilities – Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridgeshire.

 

The international campaign launch comes as MEPs have an unprecedented

opportunity to phase out primate experiments altogether for the first

time in over two decades.

 

The ADI video `Save The Primates' reveals:

 

In South America owl monkeys scream as they are torn from the trees

of the rainforest and from their families to be taken for malaria

experiments in Colombia.

 

In Asia, monkeys in rusting, collapsing cages desperately shake their

tiny prisons at a monkey supplier in Vietnam that has been approved

by the UK Home Office, and in one year, supplied almost 500 monkeys

to HLS.

 

In the UK, the most vivid insight ever of primates in commercial

testing has been caught on film at Huntingdon Life Sciences in

Cambridgeshire, with struggling monkeys strapped into chairs and

forced to inhale products. Many are housed in 1 cubic metre cages

and then taken out to be held down by workers as tubes are forced

down their throats.

 

HLS in Cambridgeshire is a major contract testing operation for multi-

national product brands which can hold up to 550 monkeys at a time.

During the one-year ADI undercover investigation, 217 monkeys were

killed in just five studies.

 

The new `Save the Primates' report and investigation are part of a

never-before-attempted comprehensive study linking primate research

and the international primate trade to the alternatives that are now

available.

 

MEPs will be first to see the video, which will be introduced by MEP

Jens Holm together with ADI. The screening coincides with

consideration in the European Parliament of new rules for the use of

animals in experiments – the revision of Directive 86/609. This s

seen as the start of the largest drive in the EU to end the use of

primates in experiments.

 

ADI Chief Executive Jan Creamer says " There is a unique opportunity

in Europe to finally begin phasing out experiments on primates.

Nobody looking at the undercover footage of monkeys at this leading

UK laboratory could fail to be moved by the stress and suffering

these animals are forced to endure. Yet there are alternatives to

using monkeys in these tests. Now that the truth of everyday

suffering has been revealed, we must seize the opportunity to put an

end to it. "

 

Following an Animal Defenders International (ADI) campaign across

Europe, there is considerable momentum for strong measures to end

experiments on primates.

 

In September 2007, the European Parliament adopted a Declaration co-

originated by ADI calling for bans on the use of wild-caught primates

and great apes, along with a timetable for phasing out the use of all

primates in experiments. 55% of MEPs signed the Declaration, making

it the most supported on an animal protection matter ever.

 

For the first time ever the Save The Primates DVD has been produced

in six different languages – English, French, German, Italian,

Polish, and Spanish – with a drive to secure Europe-wide support for

an end to primate tests.

 

" The documentary Save the Primates shows the shocking and cruel

reality of animal experiments, " said Jens Holm MEP, GUE/NGL,

Sweden. " Everyone who believes that animal experiments are carried

out in a manner well regulated by law and with proper regard to the

animals' needs, should see this highly revealing documentary. "

 

John Bowis, Conservative MEP for London added " Primates need our

protection. I cannot accept testing at all on our great apes or on

primates taken from their wild habitats. So let's take them out of it

and then move to validated alternatives for the rest. "

 

End

--------------------------------

 

For further information, contact ADI Public Relations Officer, Ally

MacDonald

Tel: 020 7630 3344. Mobile: 07785 552548

Email: pr

 

Or Allison Tuffrey Jones. Mobile: 07970 685286

Email: gajones

 

Interviews with Jan Creamer, Chief Executive, and Tim Phillips,

Campaigns Director are available live from Strasbourg on Wednesday

4th February or in London on Thursday, 5th February.

 

High quality images/video footage/audio are available.

Copies of the `Save The Primates' leaflet and `Primate Testing in

Europe' report are available

 

More information and the full film can be found on

www.savetheprimates.com.

 

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Primate facts

 

· Over 10,000 primates die in European labs each year and an

estimated 10% of EU lab primates are taken from the wild.

 

· Nearly half (48%) of the world's primates are in danger of

extinction* according to the ICUN Red List 2008, the extinction

threat has nearly doubled in a year - from 26% in 2007.

 

· Habitat destruction, through the burning and clearing of

tropical forests, which also emits at least 20% of the global

greenhouse gases, is a major threat to primates. Other threats

include the hunting of primates for food and an illegal wildlife

trade in addition to their use in experiments.

 

· Primates are important to the health of their surrounding

ecosystems. Through the dispersal of seeds and other interactions

with their environments, primates help support a wide range of plant

and animal life in the world's tropical forests. Healthy forests

provide vital resources for local human populations, and also absorb

and store carbon dioxide that causes climate change.

* http://www.iucn.org/news_events/news/?1391

 

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List

sets the series of criteria for a species to be categorized as

threatened.

 

The full text of the proposal to revise 86 609 EEC (released on

November 5th, 2008) is available here:

 

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?

uri=COM:2008:0543:FIN:EN:PDF

 

The full text of Written Declaration 40 and details of signatories is

available here: http://www.navs.org.uk/take_action/39/0/885/

 

=========

Jens Holm, MEP: Prior to his position in the European Parliament Mr

Holm worked as an investigative journalist. Among other things he

made the documentary " Monkeys for sale " which revealed Sweden's

imports of monkeys from China – the trade was stopped.

 

Animal Defenders International (ADI)

 

With offices in London, San Francisco and Bogota, Animal Defenders

International (ADI) campaigns to protect animals in entertainment,

replacement of animals in experiments; worldwide traffic in

endangered species; vegetarianism; factory farming; pollution and

conservation. ADI also rescues animals in distress worldwide. Our

evidence has led to campaigns and legislative action all over the

world to protect them. www.ad-international.org

 

Ally MacDonald - Public Relations Officer

Animal Defenders International

Millbank Tower

London SW1P 4QP, UK.

Tel. +44 (0)20 7630 3344

Fax. +44 (0)20 7828 2179

Email: allysonmacdonald

www.ad-international.org

www.YouTube.com/AnimalDefenders

www.CafePress.com/AnimalDefenders