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Welcome to the News desk. |
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Racing industry rejects accusations of 'horrific' experiments on
horses |
16/05/2007 |
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Andrew Culf, sports
correspondent
The horse racing
industry has been criticised for funding allegedly "painful and often lethal"
laboratory experiments on horses in a report from Animal Aid, an anti-cruelty
campaigning group.
Exposure of the vivisection techniques is the group's
latest salvo against the multimillion pound sport.
The report, A Dead
Cert, details a series of experiments in which it claims horses have been
infected with viruses, pregnant animals have undergone abdominal surgery before
aborting their young, and newborn foals have been subjected to stress
experiments. .
Andrew Tyler, Animal Aid's
director, said: "The horrific experiments...are claimed to be for the greater
good - a few horses suffer so that many can benefit. That formulation is
morally corrupt. The high levels of injury and developmental problems these
invasive experiments are supposed to address are the product of racing industry
greed and callousness."
It claims many of the experiments are directly
or indirectly funded by the Horserace Betting Levy Board. The
Newmarket-based veterinary charity, the Animal Health Trust, is singled out for
criticism, while Cambridge University's equine fertility unit is reported to
have carried out two of the 10 experiments featured.
Both organisations
rejected Animal Aid's claims as absurd and said animal welfare was their
overriding priority.
Professor 'Twink' Allen, of the fertility unit,
said all the research at the equine fertility unit was carried out under Home
Office licence. "Britain is the most closely regulated country in animal
research - there is a hellish bureaucracy and we have to go through all kinds
of hoops," he said. "I am a veterinary surgeon and so are two of my staff. We
have a love for animals and wish to improve the lot of their lives."
He
said his work included trying to discover why 14-15% of pregnancies are lost.
"The criticisms are absurd and disgraceful. It distresses unknowing people and
little old ladies who read it and tend to believe it - and it smears research
badly."
The Animal Health Trust said Animal Aid's position was that
experimentation on even a single animal was never justified. "The Animal Health
Trust's primary role is to improve the health and welfare of companion
animals," a spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for the Horserace Betting
Levy Board said its funding of research was entirely concerned with the welfare
of horses. Research involving Home Office-licensed procedures would only be
funded if it could be justified by independent veterinary advisers and was
approved by an ethical review process at the university or research institute
where it was taking place.
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