An organisation used by companies to explain the need to use animals in medical and scientific research criticised the protestor who removed a new banner from outside MBR Acres at Wyton near Huntingdon. Understanding Animal Research (UAR) reacted angrily to the destruction of the banner and suggested that “pandering to these self-appointed moral arbiters isn’t going to bring about an end to dogs in research a day earlier”.
The banner was destroyed on Friday by an activist associated with Camp Beagle ahead of the following day’s protest when some 350 people came from across the UK to mount a noisy protest outside the gates of MBR Acres.
The UAR spokesperson told CambsNews: “All this protest does is distract the police, burns through the local policing budget, and makes delivering animal welfare harder.
“How do you think the dogs in the kennels felt about drums and angry shouting?
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The spokesperson said: “There’s some important context missing from the CambsNews reporting on the latest MBR protest.
“The new banner was an attempt to illustrate the information that’s openly available to the public, including details of all experiments, and real film footage of inside the site that hasn’t been manipulated.”
UAR says that to make it easier for the public to access, the banner directed people to www.beagle.wiki which collates the various resources needed to better understand the issue “like how much of MBR’s work the activists criticise is to serve the UK’s 9 million pet dogs by creating veterinary diagnostics.
“That’s the part they ripped down instead of just spraying over”.
The spokesperson said: “Understandably the activists are furious that their false narrative is being bypassed.
“It’s as if they’ve claimed that all grass is brown, listing examples of brown grass, and this website says it can be many colours”.
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The spokesperson took issue with this statement from protestors that “what goes on behind those gates in secrecy is disgusting and we need to let MBR Acres and the industries that support them know that we won’t stop until every cage is empty.
“That goes for the toxicology laboratories like Charles River in Scotland, Sequani in Ledbury and LabCorp in Harrogate and Alconbury.”
UAR says: “There is significantly less ‘secrecy’ than any normal kennels operates.
“They need high fences because activists keep trying to scale them – it took 30 police to stop them on the day of the protest, but they’re inspected by the Home Office and placed under far more scrutiny than a regular dog breeder.
“Meanwhile, the companies like Charles River that they criticise are some of the biggest investors in developing nonanimal testing methods on earth.
“Not only does that one company have dozens of patents for mainstream nonanimal methods, their spending on nonanimal R&D is $300million to 2030 – that money is equivalent of 670 years’ worth of grants from Animal Free Research UK or 960 years of the Lush Prize, both of which the activists laud despite doing far less for their cause.
“Similarly, Labcorp is the strategic partner for numerous nonanimal companies like Emulate. Developing alternatives takes time and is already a well-funded priority but is a series of complex technical challenges and can’t be rushed.”
The UAR spokesperson added: “The activists’ narrative involves leaving out inconvenient truths and they tore down the banner to prevent people from seeing the whole story.
“Pandering to these self-appointed moral arbiters isn’t going to bring about an end to dogs in research a day earlier.”
FACT FILE
Understanding Animal Research is a Mutual Society (not-for-profit organisation) that explains why animals are used in medical and scientific research.
It says its aim is to achieve a broad understanding of the humane use of animals in medical, veterinary, scientific, and environmental research in the UK.
“We are funded by our members who include universities, professional societies, industry, and charities,” it says on its website.
“The information provided by Understanding Animal Research is based on thorough research and an understanding of the facts, historical and scientific.”
