Campaign: Animal warfare experiment

Animal Aid has just launched a campaign against warfare experiments on animals. The report/pamphlet No Defence reveals how animals continue to be deliberately subjected to such weapons as nerve gases, chemical warfare agents, poisons, and explosive devices. Most of the British experiments take place at the Ministry of Defence top-secret laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire, infamous since the `40s for its nerve gas experiments. What they do to animals today, gets done to humans tomorrow-- this isn't just an animal rights issue. And even the strictly "defensive" or protection-oriented research at institutions like Porton Down is suspect: one explanation of Gulf War syndrome is that the antidotes and immunisations given to soldiers were themselves toxic--despite having been tested on animals. Moreover, "experiments" such as the one where pigs were strapped to trolleys and blasted with explosives at a range of about 50cm seem pretty crude--as Animal Aid notes, the motor industry has long since used crash dummies in place of live animals for its blast and shock simulation experiments.

Animal Aid, The Old Chapel, Bradford St, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1AW (01732 364546).