Posted by Mouflon under blog's category : Communications & media

We have been watching with great concern the animal rights extremists’ campaigns taking place in the United States and California in particular. Indeed, the reports are reminiscent of events that took place in this country some years ago. What’s more, the legitimate animal rights organisations are also very active cultivating a culture of misinformation and at times ignorance about the need for animal research and its benefits.

The situation is not helped by the scientific community’s silence on this issue and its unwillingness to defend animal research and inform the public on its benefits.

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Posted by Mouflon under blog's category : Communications & media

In Not a Chimp: the hunt for the genes that make us human, former BBC producer Jeremy Taylor explores our true relationship with chimps while looking into the latest research from genetics, cognition and neuroscience to help inform a century long debate.

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Posted by Mouflon under blog's category : Policy Issues

We recently became aware of a new website that can be used to make Freedom of Information requests and acts as an archive for all information received.

Unsurprisingly the website contains a number of FoI requests related to animal research. Browsing through this section of the website we found that two universities have supplied minutes of Ethical Review Process meetings as requested. Interestingly only the names of individuals were redacted, quite different indeed from the volume of information redacted during the MPs expenses scandal. We understand that three more universities have also received the request and their responses are pending.

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Posted by Mouflon under blog's category : Communications & media

The three-year public debate in the UK on animal-hybrid embryos was always a secondary issue for Understanding Animal Research and its forerunners, but an important one. We can claim no credit for the way it went, but we were pleased it went so well. It holds valuable lessons for all of us involved in potentially 'difficult' scientific issues.

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