We have written a full statement about why we oppose the funding of animal modelers by the Dr Hadwen Trust, so please do read that. We also provide a brief summary of our position below:
The 3Rs: Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction were developed 50 years ago as a means for ‘humane experimental technique‘ on live animals – surely a contradiction in terms – and is, today, entirely out-of-step with current medical understanding.
We believe that the Dr Hadwen Trust’s funding policies, which belong to the 3Rs system that is also supported by the Home Office and the PR company for animal models ‘Understanding Animal Research‘, mean that over 1/3rd of their scientists, who are also animal modelers, are paid to carry out non-animal work as an ‘alternative replacement’ for a method which is now proven to have never worked in the first place. This doesn’t make any sense. Human-based research is valid and viable – not an ‘alternative’.
Our scientific position shows that funding animal modelers within this 3Rs context is damaging to all affected and completely unnecessary. In our full statement we suggest that the DHT immediately abandon the 3Rs and instead develop a programme of funding newly qualified PhDs, who will then be bound to a five year contract that will prevent them from stepping onto the animal model ladder altogether. This will help to create highly qualified expertise for the future of research and teaching, and these PhDs will be working with science that is valid and viable for human patients, this is not a 3Rs ‘alternative’ to animal models.
We don’t agree with the DHT that their animal modelers will relinquish their mice models becuase they are being funded to create mistakenly named ‘alternatives’. The word alternative gives the lie that their original method worked in the first place, not to mention the fact that animal modelers base their their entire careers upon claiming that their experiments on live mice, and cells from dead rats, have ‘predictive value’ for human patients. These scientists are not going to suddenly turn round and deny their raison d’etre. This is born out by the fact that under the 3Rs system the Home Office figures show that the numbers of procedures on animals has risen to an all time high.
Our initiative is supported by Parliamentary EDM 373 which calls for a thorough, medical science hearing that will prove our position, change the law and create new laws which forbid false claims about evolutionary biology and complexity science that still continue to maintain the animal model community.
It’s important to be aware that much larger funding bodies raise millions internationally towards non-animal research under the 3Rs ‘alternative’ system (far exceeding the DHT funding targets) and this has absolutely no effect too! That’s becuase the scientific position held by animal modelers supports their entire way of life: it’s their livelihood, it supports their scientific publications both past and present and the universities at which they work that depend upon animal model grants upon which their reputations are built. For more on this key financial aspect which maintains animal models please listen to an insightful recent interview on Talk Radio Europe with the president of our medical Board.
And history shows us that funding universities to carry out non-animal work, under the 3Rs ‘replacement with alternatives’ policy, has led to an all time high number of procedures on live animals, an increase in their funding, and an increase in the income generated by animal modelers for the universities at which these scientists work. This rise in Home Office figures happens becuase describing non-animal work as a ‘alternative’ keeps the door open for animal modelers to say “we still need the whole intact system of a mouse” over human cells and computer chips. We cannot count the number of times we read this nonsense from animal modelers, every week.
The scientific position held by Patients Campaigning for Cures is truthful and powerful – it defeated plans by Cambridge University to build a primate lab in 2002, with a precedent ruling on national interest, medical and scientific grounds. The DHT were part of that!!! They could be part of that again if they dropped the 3Rs.
Last, but by no means least, the bottom line is that animal models are now proven to cause – including fatal – harm to humans too. Abandoning this catastrophe of failure – on all levels – can never be dependent upon what else is available.
Resources
For the list of animal modelers being funded by the DHT please visit this link.