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 list of charities that do and do not fund experiments on animals.
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
There is no justification for harming and exploiting animals when cruelty-free science is possible. Ask Your MP to strengthen the Government’s animal testing strategy