USE OF ANIMALS FOR WARFARE EXPERIMENTS

Early day motion 2113, tabled 26 February 2019 by Sir David Amess (Conservative). Signed by 103 members.

That this House notes with concern that, each year, thousands of animals of various species including monkeys, mice, pigs and guinea pigs, are experimented upon using chemical, biological and other weapons, causing prolonged and extensive suffering; notes that, whilst these experiments are not conducted to develop or test offensive weapons, that the animal's suffering can continue for hours until the animal dies, or is killed, and that an example of the symptoms from exposure to such weapons has included writhing, substantial incapacitation, no meaningful voluntary movement, gasping, continuous tremor, production of tears and visible production of saliva; further notes that the suffering so endured is in addition to the standard deprivations of life in a laboratory, restriction on movement, inability to choose cage-mates, inescapable stressors, such as human presence, light and sound; further notes that, in 2017 alone, at Porton Down, 3,865 animals were experimented upon for purposes including medical countermeasures to biological and chemical agents, the detection and identification of biological agents; and calls on the Government to introduce a ban on the use of living animals for warfare experiments.

Signatures by party: Labour 47, Scottish National Party 26, Liberal Democrat 8, Conservative 5, DUP 5, Labour/Co-operative 5, Independent 3, Plaid Cymru 3, Green 1.