Cardiff University carried out over 50,000 experiments on animals in 2011. Please contact the university's vice-chancellor to demand that they commit immediately to conduct no experiments on cats or which involve blinding animals or interfering with animals' brains, and that they utilise humane methods to replace all animal experiments.
Dear Professor Riordan,
In the light of the public outcry resulting from publicity surrounding the conduct of vision experiments on cats at Cardiff University, please commit immediately to a policy prohibiting research on cats or any that involves interfering with the senses of all animals. I also urge you on ethical and scientific grounds to replace all animal research currently taking place at the university with humane and effective non-animal methods.
Experiments at Cardiff University involved rearing kittens in complete darkness or sewing their eyelids shut and subjecting them to brain surgery before killing them. This cruel experiment flies in the face of public concern about the use of animals such as cats in such tests and is unjustified scientifically or ethically. The paper published as a result of the work largely replicates the findings of other studies and has no direct relevance to the treatment of human vision problems. To generate much-needed treatments for ambylopia and other conditions, researchers must use human volunteers and tissues, and effective, modern techniques such as fMRI imaging.
I urge Cardiff to utilise effective, modern non-animal techniques in to replace all animal experimentation currently taking place in your institution. Cardiff must lead the way in science and ethics and embrace the techniques of the future, not the cruel and useless methods of the past.
Cardiff University carried out over 50,000 experiments on animals in 2011. Please contact the university's vice-chancellor to demand that they commit immediately to conduct no experiments on cats or which involve blinding animals or interfering with animals' brains, and that they utilise humane methods to replace all animal experiments.
In the light of the public outcry resulting from publicity surrounding the conduct of vision experiments on cats at Cardiff University, please commit immediately to a policy prohibiting research on cats or any that involves interfering with the senses of all animals. I also urge you on ethical and scientific grounds to replace all animal research currently taking place at the university with humane and effective non-animal methods.
Experiments at Cardiff University involved rearing kittens in complete darkness or sewing their eyelids shut and subjecting them to brain surgery before killing them. This cruel experiment flies in the face of public concern about the use of animals such as cats in such tests and is unjustified scientifically or ethically. The paper published as a result of the work largely replicates the findings of other studies and has no direct relevance to the treatment of human vision problems. To generate much-needed treatments for ambylopia and other conditions, researchers must use human volunteers and tissues, and effective, modern techniques such as fMRI imaging.
I urge Cardiff to utilise effective, modern non-animal techniques in to replace all animal experimentation currently taking place in your institution. Cardiff must lead the way in science and ethics and embrace the techniques of the future, not the cruel and useless methods of the past.
Cardiff University carried out over 50,000 experiments on animals in 2011. Please contact the university's vice-chancellor to demand that they commit immediately to conduct no experiments on cats or which involve blinding animals or interfering with animals' brains, and that they utilise humane methods to replace all animal experiments.