FLOE is supported by preeminent primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, acclaimed primatologist and television wildlife presenter Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek PhD and the much respected, long established Beagle Association – Beagles being the chosen breed of dog for laboratory experiments, internationally. The Beagle Association states: ‘The Beagle Association supports FLOE in it’s campaign against testing on animals, as science now has the means to explain exactly how and why laboratory animals are not capable of predicting human response and so, therefore, testing on animals is not an appropriate way of predicting the human response to drugs.’
In clear distinction from FLOE’s illustration of science – which, as science, does not hold an ethical position about the suffering of laboratory animals – FLOE’s supportive advocates for animals do hold an ethical position about the acute suffering experienced by sentient animals, who are the subjects of these laboratory experiments.
The latest Home Office statistics show that 67% of lab Beagles were experimented on under the assumption that animals are able to predict toxicity in new medicines for humans: namely as claimed ‘predictive’ models in human ‘applied’ studies (essentially for the toxicity testing of new human medicines and ADME studies). Indeed eighty-eight percent of non-human primates were experimented on for such ‘applied’ studies as were seventy-three percent of all rats.
Please visit our Key Points side panel – to the right – for the scientific definition of prediction and what this actually means for human health. Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek, the Beagle Association and our additional Beagle supporters are able to appreciate what this means for non-human primates and Beagles with the vital help of investigations that have to be filmed undercover:
WARNING: Click here for stills from the above undercover investigations.
The law that still requires these experiments opposes current understanding of complexity science and evolutionary biology, which explains exactly how and why predicting safety for humans is an impossible task for laboratory animals. Read more about this at the science blog here, where you can click on the many topics and headings, or follow this science blog in our News Feed.
A fundamental reason why FLOE matters to its supportive advocates for animals is because the above behaviour would be prosecuted if it were taking place outside the environment of an animal laboratory. It is crucial to them, therefore, for the just and fair rule of law to recognise that such experiments not only fail the scientific criteria of prediction, but also fail to practise morally acceptable science. Please visit FLOE’s RESOURCES and watch the science lecture to appreciate how current science judges up-to-date evidence; for KEY POINTS at a glance, check out our side panel, to the right of this page.