A new Parliamentary bulletin from BUAV claims that ‘the value of animal studies has been questioned in a new independent study’. No surprises there then! BUAV have been claiming much the same for well over 100 years.

What is daft is that they have based this at least partially on a quote pulled from the paper which states that ‘patients and physicians should remain cautious about extrapolating the findings of prominent animal research to the care of human disease’.

Well of course. This is nothing more than a reminder of good scientific practice. It would be the case for any type of research. Even clinical trials can come up with contradictory or confusing results. And work in cell cultures or computers—long the favourites of the antivivisection movement—can be hopelessly unreliable.

On the one hand antivivisectionists accuse the scientific community of over-reliance on the results of animal studies. And at the same time they find fault when researchers point out that it would be wrong to rely on the results of animal studies.  This kind of contradictory analysis is going to do little to help the credibility of an organisation that is already struggling to have any impact on the debate.

We were informed that their new Director, Michelle Thew, is starting at BUAV today. She was reappointed some months ago in a surprise move, since she left the very same position a few years ago. Michelle has clearly gone nowhere in the intervening years. She will be hard-pressed to raise the game of this organisation. But if she fails, they are likely to suffer the same fate as her.