Extensive video and documentary evidence collected by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection during a ten month undercover investigation of a Cambridge University neuroscience primate lab during 2000/2001 was used this week by the BUAV when it took the Home Office to the High Court requesting a Judicial Review in how it implements the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act.
The High Court agreed with the BUAV in that the Home Office was mislabeling experiments on animals by understating the severity of suffering the animals experienced. The Home Office is given leave to appeal and the High Court rejected three other claims made by the BUAV.
Nevertheless, this is a significant victory for the BUAV. This is because the government repeatedly claims the British law effectively protects animals used in laboratories.
The BBC reports BUAV’s Michelle Thew as saying
We have proven that the government misleads the public and Parliament about the severity of animal experiments licensed in the UK. The government can no longer pretend it has the strictest regulation of animal experiments in the world. This case demonstrates it has ridden roughshod over the public’s trust in this matter.
