The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection this month released videotaped footage purporting to show animal cruelty at a Cambridge University laboratory. The laboratory uses primates to carry out research into diseases such as Parkinson’s.
According to BUAV the video shows “horrific” procedures which the BBC summed up thusly,
BUAV said one of its investigators had secretly filmed monkey used in experiments for Parkinson’s Disease, stroke and fundamental research into brain function.
The pictures show animals that have had their skulls opened and their brains deliberately damaged, either by sucking out sections, cutting sections, or by injecting toxins.
BUAV claimed the monkeys suffered bleeding head wounds, fits, vomiting, severe bruising, whole-body tremors and mental and physical disabilities. It said the standard of care offered to the animals in these states was woeful.
For its part, Cambridge University launched an investigation of the allegations. It released a statement saying,
The university is taking this matter extremely seriously and has launched a full-sacle investigation into the claims made. These claims have very far-reaching implications and every possible effort is being made to establish the facts surrounding them.
Much of BUAV’s allegations seem to turn on whether or not what the primates experienced “moderate” or “substantial” suffering.” Regardless, like other animal rights investigations (including previous ones by BUAV) there was a glaring oddity in the release. Namely, BUAV claimed its operative conducted an investigation that last 10 months, but it released just a heavily-edited 21-minute videotape to highlight its allegations. Odd that with all of that time undercover, BUAV could only find 21 minutes worth of material to string together for its video.
It is certainly possible that Cambridge University’s primate facility has not been performing due diligence to met UK laws about animal cruelty, but a more likely explanation is that BUAV has released a selectively edited video to give this impression. Given BUAV’s habit of suppressing the results of investigations into animal cruelty that it does not approve of, the group does not have a lot of credibility.
It will be interesting to see how Cambridge’s investigation compares to the BUAV videotape.
Source:
Cambridge monkey experiments inquiry. The BBC, May 24, 2002.
University probe into monkey lab claims. The Cambridge News (UK), May 25, 2002.