A new group calling itself VERO - Voice for Ethical Research at Oxford - has been formed to campaign against the new animal research centre being built by Oxford University. The conjunction of ‘VERO’ (suggesting truth) and the word ‘ethical’ is clever, but the name belies a reliance on the same tired old antivivisection untruths and propaganda.
In an open letter to the Vice Chancellor of the University last week, the group, which has 20 founder members, said:
Vivisection - by definition - subjects animals to considerable pain, stress and lasting harm, and there is also a growing body of evidence that animals are neither safe nor suitable models for studying human diseases.
If the definition they’re using is that used in the UK Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (which incidentally imposes the strictest controls in the world on animal experimentation), they should look at it more closely. The Act defines a ‘regulated procedure’ as ‘any experimental or other scientific procedure applied to a protected animal which may have the effect of causing [my emphasis] that animal pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm’.
The open letter continues
240 MPs have already signed an Early Day Motion calling for an independent evaluation of the scientific validity of animal experimentation - a move that would be welcomed by 83% of GPs, according to a survey by Europeans for Medical Progress.
See my previous blog Lies, damn lies and statistics, which exposes Europeans for Medical Progress’s ability to play fast and loose with facts and figures. The Oxford academics (none of them scientists) who founded VERO really should know better than to parrot nonsense like this.
However, the letter concludes with a call for humane research and transparency, sentiments that we can all agree with:
Here is an ideal opportunity for the University to develop a centre of excellence worthy of its reputation as a seat of enlightened and humane thought.... we believe this issue to be a matter of public interest which should be as transparent as possible.
Indeed, you could say this aim has already been achieved, given that the University has displayed a wealth of information on its website since 2004 and has increasingly sought to engage in public debate.
A final puzzle. The founder of VERO, Sharon Howe, created some minor interest earlier this year by ‘returning’ her MA to Oxford. We’ve heard of people returning, or not accepting, honours, but on what basis can you return a qualification? Perhaps she has erased everything she learned during her Masters from her brain. Now that could explain one or two things ... Or maybe this is one of those MAs that you can simply buy for a bargain-basement price. In either case it must rank as one of the emptiest gestures ever.
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