Posted by Zebedee under blog's category : Antivivisection & extremism

An animal rights campaigner who fire-bombed Oxford University was jailed last week for 10 years after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit arson. Mel Broughton attacked Queen's and Templeton Colleges and led a campaign against the University’s new biomedical research laboratory.

Over the last year in the UK, laws covering conspiracy and blackmail and specific legislation on economic damage against research have been used successfully in prosecutions of animal rights extremists. But this is just part of the strategy to crack down on extremism brought in by government in 2005, which has resulted in a significant reduction in harassment, intimidation and violence.

Other countries need to take a lead from the UK, whether or not they have laws in place already to deal with this egregious brand of extremism.

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Posted by Zebedee under blog's category : Policy Issues

Writing in today's Times, Professor Colin Blakemore says everyone wants a piece of Charles Darwin on the 200th anniversary of his birth. Darwin understood the need for both animal welfare and animal research, and sparked a fierce debate by writing to The Times about it in 1881. Now – with new laws being debated in Europe – is the time to attempt a more nuanced debate, says Professor Blakemore.

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Posted by Zebedee under blog's category : Research & medical benefits

The US Food and Drug Administration last week approved the first medicine made with materials from genetically engineered animals. CBC News said it cleared the way for a new class of medical therapies, athough the medicine received European approval back in 2006.

ATryn is made using milk from GM goats that produce extra antithrombin, a protein that acts as a natural blood thinner. It is approved for patients with a rare hereditary disorder that causes a deficiency of antithrombin, putting them at higher risk of deadly blood clots.

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Posted by Zebedee under blog's category : Antivivisection & extremism

An editorial in this week’s edition of the leading science journal, Nature, calls on the US authorities to tackle animal rights extremism as effectively as we have in the UK. It concludes that this would lead to more constructive dialogue on, for instance, the Three Rs.

Nature urges the US authorities:

'to go beyond enforcement and take an unequivocal, public stand that emphasises the importance of animal research for drug testing and basic science — as did former UK prime minister Tony Blair. It would be especially helpful if President Barack Obama were to make such a statement.' It continues: 'Such a level of open support might make individual researchers more apt to speak up about their own work. Britain again provides a good model in the form of Pro-Test'.

We agree. But there is still a barrier to constructive dialogue because antivivisection groupshold extreme views, refusing to accept the value and validity of animal research and continue to push replacement alternatives that cannot, in the real world, replace animals. They can’t play, won’t play, their part in constructive dialogue.

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