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Animal rights group creates hit list of universities conducting research on monkeys
Last updated at 23:22pm on 09.11.06
Letters sent to six universities requesting details of experiments involving primates have sparked panic among researchers
Animal rights activists are using freedom of information laws to draw up a 'hit list' of universities which conduct research on monkeys
Letters sent to six universities requesting details of experiments involving primates have sparked panic among researchers.
The revelation raises the spectre of extremists widening their focus beyond Oxford University where militants are waging a terror campaign to derail a planned £20million animal research facility.
The group which made the requests under the Freedom of Information Act insists it is non-violent and has not yet decided what it would do with the replies.
But academics fear the list will be published on the web and seized on by extremist groups.
They are concerned activists are attempting to discover the names of the 10 universities engaged in forms of primate research.
Until now, universities have attempted to keep their primate testing facilities secret amid fears of attack.
The Home Office has a list of institutions doing this work but it is strictly classified and not shared even with the Department of Trade and Industry, which is responsible for science.
Details of the letter were revealed yesterday in the Times Higher Education Supplement.
It asks for details of how many and what species of research primates are being used at the university.
It goes on: "We are contacting a number of universities in the UK to collate an accurate and up-to-date picture of primate experimentation at UK universities.
"Published work by researchers at your institution suggests that primates are being used there.
"We think it is in the public interest that more information is given about the nature of such use, so that a more complete picture can be obtained about overall primate use in the UK than is currently available."
The Research Defence Society, which campaigns on behalf of animal research, said information on primate testing was not currently publicly available.
Simon Festing, executive director, said: "The fear is that this will be a hit list. If they identify the roughly ten institutions which do primate research and put it online, all it needs is some nutcase locally to follow a researcher home and carry out an attack.
"At the moment, animal rights extremists in the UK are sending hoax letter bombs. Actual injuries have been minimal but it is the fear that is the issue. These universities are scared for their researchers."
Oxford's laboratory complex has been the subject of a prolonged campaign by animal rights fanatics. At one stage the project had to be shelved for 16 months.
Construction is now carried out behind high hoardings while builders are escorted to and from the site and wear balaclavas to hide their faces.
Extremists have described Oxford academics as "legitimate targets" and published their addresses on the Internet.
A key figure in animal research at one of the universities targeted with letters told the THES said academics were "worried".
"The spectre of what is going on at Oxford is something no one wants to see repeated at their institution."
The six universities targeted with letters have been advised to neither confirm nor deny whether they undertake primate research.
The group which issued the letters is the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.
Sean Gifford, campaigns manager, said: "In general, these experiments go on behind closed and locked doors. We have a long campaign to ban primate research completely. Primates are our next of kin. It doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to see that they suffer enormously in British labs.
"We absolutely condemn any act of violence and intimidation towards technicians or researchers."
Reader views (5)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Universities are funded by the taxpayer, so citizens have the right to know what sort of research is being done. If the researchers are so terrified of public scrutiny they should stop using public funding. The vivisectors always claim their experiments are essential to medical progress, but they always hide behind closed doors and terror fears when called upon to justify what they are doing.
- Mark,, New Zealand
Is it any surprise that primate vivisectors want to remain anonymous? If their neighbors learned the details of their work, it is likely that they would be shunned.
We frequently hear that the UK has the world's most stringent animal welfare laws. Indeed, if the experiments are so secret, how could anyone ever hope to test such a claim? It is more likely that the claim is just more propaganda.
- Rick Bogle, Madison, U.S.
Yet again the animal experimenters jump up and down using the terrorist banner this time against the BUAV. The BUAV are the most conciliatory, mainstream anti vivisection group in the country. How on earth can anyone expect to be taken seriously if they accuse this group, of all groups, of being terrorists? Especially at a time like this, when genuine terrorism is increasingly raising its head.
The animal rights movement has killed nobody in its history, and the BUAV has never planted an incendiary, or committed even an act of civil disobedience. They write polite letters asking for information.
This hysterical reaction makes you wonder what the vivisectionists have to hide.
- Neil James, England
Having seen the protests in Oxford first hand and the massive policing operation that goes with it, I can easily understand reluctance of other institutions to go public with their legitimate and perfectly legal work. Freedom of information is the preferred default option and people should be told what experiments take place in order to make informed choices about their value and continued acceptance. However in this case there is a clear public interest why the sites should remain secret and the identity of individual researchers protected from extremists who may target them, even if the work that is done should not.
- G, London
The use of primates or any other animal is wrong. What right do we have to put these creatures in prison and experiment with them? The public has every right to know who is performing these atrocities because they are funded with public funds.
- Wayne Johnson, USA
