www.thecourieronline.co.uk Monday 23 February 2015 Issue 1306 Free
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Uni defends former involvement in ‘deplorable’ baboon experiments
Anti-vivisectionists object to newly published work on baboons Experiments “breached guidelines”, say activists Uni: Important work would have been impossible without primates
Photo: BUAV
By Antonia Velikova News Editor Environmental activists from the British Union for Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) have expressed their criticism towards Newcastle University researchers for publishing research based on controversial experiments with wild baboons at the Institute for Primal Research in Kenya in 2013. According to the activists, these experiments have been “unnecessary” and “unhelpful” and extremely damaging to the population of wild baboons in Kenya. In response, the University confirmed that involvement in any research involving the capture of wild baboons has been discontinued. “The baboons that were captured are considered as ‘pests’ by farmers in the local area and as such are routinely shot or trapped,” said Professor Paul Flecknell of the Institute of Neuroscience. “The university reconsidered its position in December 2013, particularly in relation to the stress of capture and movement to the Kenya Primate Centre, and decided we should not continue our involvement.” “More than 90% of medical research at Newcastle does not involve experiments on animals and the University is committed to the development of alternative methods, such as computer modelling,” another University spokesman confirmed for The Courier. BUAV have launched a petition to end the “cruel capture and captivity of wild baboons in Kenya.” The petition has now gathered over 45,000 signatures. In response to Newcastle University’s statement, BUAV issued the following reply by Dr. Jarrod Bailey, Senior
Research Scientist at BUAV: “To attempt to justify the use of wild caught primates in these cruel experiments because they were labelled as ‘pests’ is deplorable. Regardless of how long the baboons were held at the Institute of Primate Research, these animals were once living freely before being cruelly snatched from their homes and social groups and kept in solitary confinement under conditions which seriously compromised their welfare and breached international guidelines. “Newcastle University rightly put an end to its involvement in these baboon experiments in Kenya, but only after BUAV’s exposé. Whatever the university says, there is no getting around the fact that it funded its researchers to flout UK laws and guidelines, by travelling to Kenya to perform unnecessary and unhelpful experiments on, and kill, baboons.” The organisation has published a video on YouTube showing graphic footage of baboons undergoing medical experiments. The video is from BUAV’s undercover investigation Captive Cruelty in Kenya and claims to expose the cruel conditions of life in the Institute for Primal Research. In response to the footage a spokesperson from the University told The Courier: “We cannot confirm that the footage portrays Newcastle research work, or whether it is more general footage from the Primate Research Institute.” “Ultimately this project is designed to help people regain movement after recovering from a stroke. To do this, new regions of the brain have to be studied, work that was not possible Continued on page 4