Once again, we are appalled at the number of cases of non-compliance reported in British laboratories in 2024.
With the governments ‘Replacing animals in science’ strategy newly published and in the minds of many, it is both timely and shocking that today’s publication of the Animals in Science Regulation Unit (ASRU) annual report, highlights so many horrific cases of animal cruelty and neglect in laboratories.
ASRU licences animal experiments and each year publishes a report on their work, which describes cases of non-compliance (where licence condition have been broken) of which they are aware.
When reading the extent and scale of the horror to which animals were subjected last year, it should be remembered that no-one had ever been prosecuted for the harms inflicted on an animal in a laboratory.
Last year there were 146 cases of non-compliance, involving 22,204 animals. Of the 146 cases, 63 were related to failing to provide adequate care (including food, water and suitable facilities). These are only the cases which are discovered by inspectors or reported by those working in laboratories – no-one knows the true extent of the suffering.
Cases which occurred last year included:
-
394 fish died when they were exposed to chlorine due to ‘a system fault’
-
No-one noticed a rabbit’s lack of appetite ‘resulting in malnutrition and emaciation’
-
Two mice were left without water for ‘up to 5 days’!
-
Someone conducted experiments on 739 mice, for which they did not have authority.
-
3,817 more mice were used in an experiment than was authorised.
-
Four sheep were given injections into their joints – not only was this unauthorised, it was done ‘solely for training’
-
22 mice lost so much weight they should have been ‘humanely killed’ but they weren’t due to a ‘misunderstanding about how to calculate weight loss’
-
12 fish were in a tank ‘found to have no water or air supply’
Animal Aid is opposed to all animal experiments – they are both cruel and unreliable and data from animals cannot be reliably translated to humans. This makes animal suffering and deaths even more scandalous. We have better, non-animal scientific methods available, such as Organ-on-chip technology, computer simulations and AI, which we should use instead.
Jessamy Korotoga, Head of Science at Animal Aid
No previous case of non-compliance has ever resulted in a prosecution, usually a ‘letter of reprimand’ is received, possibly ‘retraining’ and sometimes someone might have their licence revoked.
The 2024 report describes incidents classed as ‘failure to provide adequate care’, ‘failure to provide food / water’ and failure to comply with the ‘authorities’ of the licence for the project of work.
More cases identified in the report include:
-
Misidentification of sex led to regulated procedures performed on pregnant animals – 7 mice
-
Animals accidentally kept overnight in a pen that was too small, and one animal was singly housed – 4 dogs
-
Fish escaped tank as baffle (Plastic insert managing lab tank water flow) was not the appropriate size – 27 fish
-
Animal mistakenly put in waste bag – 1 hamster
-
Multiple cases where the animals’ tails were trapped, by cage lids, for many hours, with no access to food or water, resulting in death.
-
Multiple cases where animals were left without food or water for hours and sometimes even days
