ANIMALS IN LABORATORIES

That this House applauds the Home Office-sanctioned release in June 1996 of 10 rats to the Last Chance Animal Rescue Centre, Edenbridge from the Pharmacia-Upjohn laboratory in Crawley, Sussex; notes that these animals would have been killed as the laboratory was closing down; further notes that investigations carried out by anti-vivisection organisations have revealed the mass killing of animals surplus to requirements in laboratories; condemns such killings as unnecessary, callous and barbaric, and running contrary to the spirit of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986; and calls upon Her Majesty's Government to prohibit the killing of such animals by making the necessary amendments to the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, by including the killing of surplus animals under the definition of a regulated procedure.