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I am a retired neuro-radiographer and married to a medical consultant. I have been involved in anti- vivisection for about 20 years and I never fail to be amazed by the unscientific animal research which is undertaken as a ‘model for humans’.

Animals used as ‘models’ for humans can range from goldfish for eye nerve research and elephants for LSD research to nine banded armadillos for leprosy research.

I instigated the expose of Professor W Feldberg FRS, at the National Institute of Medical Research, Mill Hill, London in 1989. I had read of his experiments and was shocked by them. He was injecting chemicals such as strychnine and antifreeze directly into the brain of conscious cats. By the time of the expose he was 89 years old. Numerous visits by Home Office Inspectors (27 in the last year alone) had apparently not revealed anything amiss, yet after videotaped evidence of his experiments was handed into the Home Office his licence to experiment on animals was revoked immediately (although it was said he happened to have retired on that day! This was found to be untrue, as he had been allowed a 6-month extension of his licence and contract).

Every undercover expose shows the REAL world of vivisection and the various exposes of Huntingdon Life Sciences have been appalling, with the recent leaked documented information on xenotransplant research (using pigs and monkeys) being suppressed by Court injunction.

Regarding animal experiments, misinformed members of the public often state ‘if it is a choice between the life of my child or a dog, the dog will have to be experimented on’. They don’t realise that if animal experiments were relevant to humans, an experiment on e.g. a dog could be extrapolated to a dog-sized child, or an experiment on a rabbit to a rabbit sized child. This is not the case.

Most medications/’therapies’ given to babies and children have not been licensed for them. They are given scaled down doses from adult HUMAN data on a ‘suck it and see’ basis. It is a small market (forgive the pun) and the drug companies are not willing to invest time and money in trials on children.

It is also notoriously difficult for medical doctors to do clinical trials on children as the parents will often refuse permission. This is strange if the parents really believe in the safety of the previous animal experiments!

The NHS cannot cope with the epidemic of new and chronic illnesses. Out of 30,000 illnesses, 20,000 have no treatment or cure (Bayer advert, 1989). Many diseases such as cancers, Aids, ME, Gulf War Syndrome, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzeimers, Crohn’s, asthma and autism may well be caused, or facilitated by, animal ’safety’ tested chemicals such as pesticides and vaccines. HLS has been involved in such testing.

I am appalled that such crude, unscientific methods of research using animals and animal tissues still continues. It is a disgrace to science. Such testing should be stopped at once for all our sakes and proper scientific methods, relevant to humans, used NOW.

Jill Russell, Retired neuro-radiographer