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SHOCKING TESTS EXPOSED INSIDE HUNTINGDON LIFE SCIENCES UK LAB, AS EU
CONSIDERS ENDING PRIMATE EXPERIMENTS

Today a groundbreaking new documentary revealing the all too visible
distress that lab primates face on a daily basis is revealed by Animal
Defenders International (ADI). The 'Save The Primates' investigation
exposes every aspect of the global primate trade across three
continents, including one of Europe's largest testing facilities -
Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridgeshire.  

The international campaign launch comes as MEPs have an unprecedented
opportunity to phase out primate experiments altogether for the first
time in over two decades. 

The ADI video 'Save the Primates' reveals:

In South America owl monkeys scream as they are torn from the trees of
the rainforest and from their families to be taken for malaria
experiments in Colombia.

In Asia, monkeys in rusting, collapsing cages desperately shake their
tiny prisons at a monkey supplier in Vietnam that has been approved by
the UK Home Office, and in one year, supplied almost 500 monkeys to HLS.

In the UK, the most vivid insight ever of primates in commercial testing
has been caught on film at Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridgeshire,
with struggling monkeys strapped into chairs and forced to inhale
products.  Many are housed in 1 cubic metre cages and then taken out to
be held down by workers as tubes are forced down their throats.

HLS in Cambridgeshire is a major contract testing operation for
multi-national product brands which can hold up to 550 monkeys at a
time.  During the one-year ADI undercover investigation, 217 monkeys
were killed in just five studies.

The new 'Save the Primates' report and investigation are part of a
never-before-attempted comprehensive study linking primate research and
the international primate trade to the alternatives that are now
available.  

MEPs will be first to see the video, which will be introduced by MEP
Jens Holm together with ADI.  The screening coincides with consideration
in the European Parliament of new rules for the use of animals in
experiments - the revision of Directive 86/609.  This is seen as the
start of the largest drive in the EU to end the use of primates in
experiments.

To get the full update on the launch go to;
http://www.savetheprimates.org   
Click here to view the video http://www.savetheprimates.org  
Click here to view the photographs
http://www.savetheprimates.org/photos/   
Click here to read the full report http://www.savetheprimates.org  

ADI Chief Executive Jan Creamer says, "There is a unique opportunity in
Europe to finally begin phasing out experiments on primates. Nobody
looking at the undercover footage of monkeys at this leading UK
laboratory could fail to be moved by the stress and suffering these
animals are forced to endure. Yet there are alternatives to using
monkeys in these tests.  Now that the truth of everyday suffering has
been revealed, we must seize the opportunity to put an end to it."

For the first time ever the Save the Primates DVD has been produced in
six different languages - English, French, German, Italian, Polish, and
Spanish - with a drive to secure Europe-wide support for an end to
primate tests.

"The documentary Save the Primates shows the shocking and cruel reality
of animal experiments," said Jens Holm MEP, GUE/NGL, Sweden. "Everyone
who believes that animal experiments are carried out in a manner well
regulated by law and with proper regard to the animals' needs, should
see this highly revealing documentary."

John Bowis, Conservative MEP for London added, "Primates need our
protection. I cannot accept testing at all on our great apes or on
primates taken from their wild habitats.  So let's take them out of it
and then move to validated alternatives for the rest."


http://www.savetheprimates.org  





Ally MacDonald - Public Relations Officer
Animal Defenders International 
Millbank Tower
London SW1P 4QP, UK.
Tel.  +44 (0)20 7630 3344
Fax.  +44 (0)20 7828 2179
Email: allysonmacdonald AT ad-international.org
www.ad-international.org
www.YouTube.com/AnimalDefenders
www.CafePress.com/AnimalDefenders