DID YOU KNOW?

Thousands of animals are suffering
in Irish laboratories right now

Most people are very surprised to learn that animals are routinely used and killed in laboratories around Ireland. People are very concerned when they hear that experiments are conducted in this country on dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters and pigs as well as the most commonly used rats and mice.

Animal Experiments Double!

The IAVS is horrified to learn that the number of animals used for vivisection in Irish laboratories has almost doubled from 64,378 animals used in 2007 to 112,835 animals in 2008 according to the new Department of Health Statistical Report on Animal Experiments that we have just received.

6 new commercial companies have been licensed to experiment on animals in the last couple of years (bringing the total to 9). Commercial companies used 10,058 animals (including nearly 900 dogs and cats) in 2007, but last year they experimented on 54,988 live animals (including 750 dogs and cats, 99 horses and 91 cattle).

The Department of Health publish the Animal Procedures Statistics each year which gives a breakdown of the species and numbers of animals used in experiments in Ireland.  However, thousands more animals are bred and killed simply because they are surplus to requirement, or were the wrong sex or genetic make up for a particular experiment. The Department of Health does not collect information about these animals or publish the number of animals involved. We therefore cannot determine the total number of animals dying each year due to vivisection in Ireland.
 
Worldwide it is calculated that 20,000 animals die every hour in laboratories.
 

The IAVS campaigns peacefully for the law to be changed so that all animal experiments will be abolished.

We believe it is morally wrong to deliberately inflict pain, suffering, emotional harm and death on animals for whatever purpose. Animal experiments, by definition, cannot be separated from some degree of pain and suffering. Using animals as substitutes for human beings in research and testing is scientifically questionable and experimental results are unreliable due to the numerous ‘species differences’ between animals and ourselves.
 
The Department of Health regulates vivisection in Ireland and issues licences for people in universities, research institutes, hospitals and commercial companies to perform experiments and tests on animals.
 
We continually request information from the Department of Health to find out exactly what is happening to these animals and why. It is a matter of great public interest and yet the details about experiments on animals are not released on the grounds that information is confidential and/or commercially important. This protects the interests of those conducting experiments but not the animals involved.  Even requests made under the Freedom of Information Act are denied due to various exemptions that prevent information on vivisection from being made public. However, public money is involved in funding some animal experimentation work, which we believe entitles the public to know what is going on behind closed doors of laboratories.
 
A ban on all experiments on animals is unlikely to be won in the short term due to the powerful prevailing views of science, industry and governments worldwide. It is therefore vital that the IAVS strongly opposes animal experiments on both moral and scientific grounds while promoting scientific research and testing methods that do not involve animals.
 
If you agree that it is wrong to use animals in experiments please join the IAVS.
We are member of the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments and are part of a Europe-wide campaign to end vivisection.

What is Vivisection?