Government Animal Cruelty Report "Dishonest" and "Inaccurate"

10 October 2001

The [UK] Government's response to a damning exposé of animal experimentation is condemned as "dishonest" and "inaccurate" by the author of the exposé. Today, a key advisory committee meets to discuss the impact of the revelations as criticism of the Home Office mounts.

In spring 2000, thousands of pages of internal documents were leaked from IMUTRAN LTD., describing the Cambridge-based biotech company's experimental pig-to-primate organ transplant research at HUNTINGDON LIFE SCIENCES. The documents included harrowing records of animal suffering, shoddy research practice, a lack of progress in developing pig organs for transplant.

Perhaps most significantly, the documents revealed that Government ministers had failed to ensure that welfare regulations were adhered to and had given misleading statements in Parliament that had obscured mistakes and failures in the research programme.

The documentation was leaked to anti-vivisection group Uncaged Campaigns, whose director, Dan Lyons, compiled a 150 page report to tell the story of the documents. The report was entitled Diaries of Despair, referring to the logs that animal technicians kept describing the condition of the dying primates.

The Home Secretary refused, without explanation, to implement an independent judicial inquiry, which is required in instances of Government wrongdoing. Instead, the Home Office has continued its biased policy in its response to the Diaries of Despair report.

Despite compelling evidence of Home Office wrongdoing, the Home Secretary ordered an internal inquiry to examine a small portion of the concerns raised in Diaries of Despair. The official advisory Animal Procedures Committee (APC) explicitly expressed its "surprise" at this narrow, compromised approach and wrote to the Minister twice to ask why a more independent inquiry was not initiated. The Minister stonewalled. The APC has resolved to write for a third time.

Dan Lyons comments:
"The outcome of the Home Office internal inquiry is a report that is even more incoherent and unreliable than we expected. The Chief Inspector's review is a blatant attempt to cover-up wrongdoing and unfairly discredit the Diaries of Despair report. On several occasions the review explicitly distorts the facts: it is breathtaking in its brazen dishonesty and inaccuracy."

The APC will discuss the issue at its meeting today.

Dan Lyons remarks:
"The irony is that the Home Office and the Inspectorate are digging a deeper hole for themselves by pursuing such an extreme and disreputable policy. It's hard to see how the Chief Inspector can continue in his post given the shoddiness of his review. By insulting the intelligence of its own advisory committee, the Home Office is managing to alienate broad swathes of opinion, not just committed anti-vivisectionists. The pressure is building on the Government to establish an independent judicial inquiry."

-Ends-

For further information, contact Dan Lyons on +44 0114 2722220.

Notes

• Relevant minutes of APC meetings can be found at: www.apc.gov.uk/reference/dec00.htm (Item 9); www.apc.gov.uk/reference/feb01.htm (item 6); www.apc.gov.uk/reference/may01.htm (item 4)

• The Chief Inspector's Report into Imutran Ltd. can be found in pdf format via: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/new_indexs/index_anima.htm

• Uncaged Campaigns have written again to Home Office minister Angela Eagle MP to complain about inaccuracies in the Chief Inspector's report and suggest that the Chief Inspector has made his position untenable.