Jonathan Evans (Cardiff North) (Con)

- Hansard -

The petition has arisen following revelations about the unusual nature of experiments carried out on live kittens at Cardiff university, which involve the sewing up of their eyelids. A number of my constituents were so shocked by the revelations that Mr Derek Hector and Mr Dom Spens, who are committed to animal welfare and recognise the importance of this Chamber, organised a petition. They managed to gather 2,000 signatures at Cardiff university and six locations in central Cardiff over a period of barely 24 hours. That is an indication of the concern in my city over the issue.

The petition states:

The Petition of Derek Hector of 68 Heol y Forlan, Whitchurch, Cardiff, CF14 1BA and others,

Declares that the Petitioners consider that vivisection is dangerous to humans since drugs that have been passed for human use following testing on animals have later been found to have caused birth defects, organ failure and death; further that vivisection needlessly kills hundreds of thousands of animals and that vivisection delays the development of safe advances in medical, surgical and veterinary progress. It also declares that vivisection is a huge cost to tax payers, Cardiff University having spent more than £1.5 million during 2011 on the use of animals in experiments and that this is unacceptable when there are other 450 viable alternatives to vivisection which give far more accurate results.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to bring forward proposals for ending animal experimentation throughout Great Britain, including at Cardiff University.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.

[P001156]