Early day motion · EDM 187 · 7 Oct 2024

Scientific hearing on animal experiments

Tabled by John McDonnell (Labour) 85 signatures

The motion

That this House applauds the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, enshrining in law the ability of animals to experience joy and feel suffering and pain; notes the science-based campaign For Life On Earth, with its Beagle Ambassador, rescued laboratory dog Betsy; is shocked to see the continuing harrowing exposés that show thousands of laboratory dogs being intensively bred in the UK, underlining the consequences of that Act; notes that scientists in the wider scientific community, outside of the animal-based research sector, acknowledge the failure of animal testing in the search for human treatments and cures, and that those experts include pharmaceutical industry scientists, an Editor in Chief of the British Medical Journal, the US-based National Cancer Institute, which states cures for cancer have been lost because studies in rodents were believed, and the Food and Drug Administration, which states that nine out of ten new medicines fail to pass human trials because animals cannot predict responses in humans; further notes the Trans-Species Modelling Theory, founded upon the theory of evolution, which explains why animals fail as predictive models of humans; and calls on the Government to mandate a rigorous public scientific hearing, judged by independent experts from the relevant science fields, to cease the funding of the now-proven failed practice of animal experimentation and increase funding for state of the art human-based research, such as human-on-a-chip and gene-based medicine, to prioritise treatments and cures for human patients, and to stop the suffering of innocent laboratory dogs and other animals.