On World Day for Animals in Laboratories Martyn Day MP Urges the Government to End Animal Testing

World Day for Animals in Laboratories, observed every year on April 24, aims to end the suffering of the animals that are used for testing in laboratories around the world and replace them with advanced scientific non-animal techniques.

April 24 was selected as it honours the birthday of Hugh Dowding, a staunch anti-vivisectionist and former president of NAVS,

Martyn Day, MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, said: “Right now, millions of animals endure confinement and experimentation in laboratories, experiencing pain, loneliness, and fear.

“Drug development is notoriously slow and expensive – it can take up to 10 years and cost more than £1 billion to bring a new compound from the lab to market. A major cause of this inefficiency is the traditional reliance on testing drugs in animals before they are tested in humans.

“Animals often do not accurately reflect human physiology, meaning that drugs which appear to be safe and effective in animals frequently turn out to be harmful or ineffective in humans. This mismatch in biology causes many ineffective or toxic drugs to advance through clinical trials at great expense, while potentially effective compounds never make it to market.

“There are better ways to model human biology and diseases, and these give the accurate data needed to accelerate the development of new drugs and personalised medicine.

“This World Day for Animals in Laboratories, the UK government must commit to ending the suffering of millions of animals by ending the barbaric practice of animal testing and promoting cruelty-free research.”