A recent article in the Independent (London) reported that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has recently moderated some of its rhetoric in order not to be associated with violent activists targeting Huntingdon Life Sciences, but this is still clearly an RSPCA that is beholden to the animal rights ideology.
Currently about 1,500 non-human primates are imported into Great Britain every year for medical research, and the RSPCA is laying out a plan to gradually phase out such research (it is already illegal in Great Britain to conduct research involving on chimpanzees).
In a new campaign against primate research, the RSPCA sets out three goals: make it illegal to import primates into Great Britain; strictly regulate the transportation of animals within Great Britain; conduct a “critical review” of the role of primates in medical research.
Sources:
RSPCA demands monkey import ban. The BBC, December 7, 2001.
Time to stop monkeying around with animal rights. The Independent (London), December 7, 2001.