Cat and dog testban support whilstNI Unis use rodents

Londonderry MP Mark Durkan is supporting a campaign to ban experiments on cats and dogs whilst local universities continue to test rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and rats.
Foyle MP Mark Durkan supporting the Our Best Friends campaign at Westminster with BUAV Chief Executive Michelle Thew.Foyle MP Mark Durkan supporting the Our Best Friends campaign at Westminster with BUAV Chief Executive Michelle Thew.
Foyle MP Mark Durkan supporting the Our Best Friends campaign at Westminster with BUAV Chief Executive Michelle Thew.

Mr Durkan joined Paul O’Grady and Ricky Gervais in support of a campaign by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) which is calling for an end to the “cruel and unnecessary testing of cats and dogs in laboratories throughout the UK.”

He said: “Two thirds of the public believe experiments which cause pain and suffering to cats and dogs should not be allowed. It is therefore time for the government to listen and end the use of Our Best Friends in laboratories.”

In 2011, the Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB), used 9,646 living animals in experiments. And at the start of June 2012 there were 2,883 living animals held on QUB premises for research purposes. At the University of Ulster research was carried out on 138 rats and 1,760 mice in 2011.

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