Some medical charities, including ‘big names’ like Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation, are involved in harming and killing animals in the name of medical progress. Not only is this kind of research cruel and unethical, it’s also a waste of the public’s money because the results cannot be reliably applied to humans.
Even as millions of people across the globe have little to no access to healthcare, experiments on animals continue to divert money away from science that is human-relevant and may actually save lives.
Download the full list of health charities conducting or funding experiments on animals*
*Some charities may not be directly involved in conducting or funding research on animals but are members of the Association of Medical Research Charities. This organisation promotes the use of animals in laboratories and requires its members to support the practice.
Healthcare without the harm
Many charities do not fund or conduct experiments on animals and instead direct their resources towards animal-free research or helping those living with medical conditions in other ways. They recognise that experiments on animals are unreliable and often misleading, and that real progress can still be achieved without confining animals to laboratories and subjecting them to invasive, often painful, procedures.
But there is another layer to this: even if experiments on animals were reliable, they can never be justified. Animals exist for their own reasons, independent of how ‘useful’ they are to humans, and their freedom should be respected as such.
That’s why we campaign against all experiments on animals and have done since 1977.
Take action for animals in laboratories
Experimenting on animals is cruel and outdated but also futile, as experiments on animals do not reliably predict outcomes in humans. Take action today for better science tomorrow.