Britannia Radio

Exclusion zone sought for Oxford's animal lab

University claims test animals will have more humane living conditions

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Wednesday, 12 November 2008

PA

The new laboratory is said to have cost more than the stated £18m

•  ENLARGE

The University of Oxford is seeking a permanent exclusion zone around its animal research laboratory, which opened yesterday.

A temporary injunction already in place restricts people from demonstrating within a certain radius of its Biomedical Sciences Building but the university wants to make this permanent at a court hearing scheduled for next year.

Demonstrations and the intimidation of contractors and staff by animal rights activists delayed the building's completion by about two years and although the university said that it does not yet have a figure for the lab's final cost it is believed that the total sum far exceeds the published figure of £18m.

As well as restricting demonstrations near the laboratory, the injunction prohibits picketing or demonstrating within 100 yards of the residence of any protected person, and bans people from identifying or following vehicles entering or leaving the exclusion zone.

University officials said yesterday that 98 per cent of the thousands of animals that will be housed in the building will be rodents, and most of those will be mice. The rest include monkeys, rats, ferrets, fish and frogs.

They refused to say how many animals will be kept in the building but estimated the figure will be in the thousands – with the number of primates being in the region of a few dozen.

Government inspectors have approved the building for animal research and the transfer of animals to the research laboratories will be completed during 2009. The university said the aim is for existing animal research to be conducted under one roof and there would be no expansion in the use of animals by university scientists.

Research on cancer, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, HIV, muscular dystrophy, motor neurone disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's are just some of the wide range of medical conditions that will benefit from experiments on animal, a university spokesman said.

"Animals are only used in our research where no other technique is available and the university is absolutely committed to replacing animal use wherever possible," said Professor Alastair Buchan, head of the medical sciences division at Oxford.

"Some animal use is still essential for medical progress. The new building will help us deliver our commitment to animal care while pursuing life-saving medical advances," he said.

University officials have argued that the new building will provide better living conditions for animals.

Mice will be kept in yellow-tinted plastic cages that give them the impression of living in low-light conditions, a more natural and comfortable environment for a nocturnal animal, and the monkeys will be allowed to live in small social groups rather than kept in individual cages, which prevent social interaction, the university said.

Michelle Thew, chief executive of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, said: "Like the majority of the British public, I want to live in a world where no one wants or believes it's necessary to test on animals. It is therefore depressing that, in a collective failure of imagination, our leading institutions are choosing to repeat the failed patterns of the past."