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Ten bioscience organisations that wrote a joint letter to the Labour party raising concern that aspects of the party’s animal welfare manifesto could end up harming animal welfare are yet to receive any response.
The letter was sent to the party earlier this month with the backing of several vets. It requested greater clarity from Labour – particularly around the party’s stated ‘long-term’ objective to ‘phase out animal testing entirely.’
Several lab animal vets have privately expressed surprise that Labour appears to have officially committed itself to eventually ending all animal experimentation in the UK (see VR, 7 September 2019, vol 185, p 247). Whether imports of drugs tested on animals would still be allowed once the UK has successfully ‘phased out’ animal testing is not clear.
Understanding Animal Research (UAR) – the science membership organisation that organised the letter – said it was keen to better understand the details of what Labour was proposing and whether it was in line with existing 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement) principles or went further.
At the time of the release of Labour’s animal welfare manifesto in August, shadow...