June 13, 2011

experts comment on the Home Office announcement of a consultation on the implementation of the new EU Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes

Efforts have been made to ‘harmonise’ the EU directive on animal protection after criticisms.

David Pruce, Chief Executive of Understanding Animal Research (UAR), said:

“A Home Office consultation with stakeholders on how to ‘transpose’ the Directive into UK law was launched today. It provides an opportunity for expert professional advice on which parts of the current UK legislation on animal experimentation should be retained and which should be changed. In this way the UK can continue to foster best practice and effective regulation in this area of science.

“Inevitably with detailed and complex regulation there are still difficult issues to be addressed and debated. These include the most humane methods of killing research animals, the retrospective assessment of suffering, and whether different standard cage sizes are any better for rodents.”

Roger Lemon, Professor of Neurophysiology at UCL Institute of Neurology and Chair of the Understanding Animal Research Policy Advisory Group, said:

“Implementation must promote good science along with support for animal welfare and efforts to eliminate any unnecessary use of animals. The UK has some of the highest standards in the world, which have been driven by the UK research community. We need to continue harmonisation across Europe without undermining the high standards we already have in the UK.”