The number of animals killed or severely injured in tens of thousands of experiments at Cardiff University in the last year has been revealed.
Over the last 12 months, academics at the university carried out 47,046 procedures on mice, rats, frogs, fish and insects.
As a result of tests, 536 mice and 19 rats died. The effect of other tests on hundreds more animals was ranked “severe”.
The university said the "necessary" tests helped studies to alleviate animal and human suffering. No tests for cosmetics or household products were carried out on animals. It is illegal in the UK and the EU to use animals to test cosmetics or their ingredients.
Animal welfare groups attacked the experiments saying they caused "immense suffering". They claimed the animals were had electrodes placed in their brains, were injected with liquid ecstasy and had their eyelids sewn up.
Cardiff is one of several Welsh universities that has used animal testing. It faced fierce criticism in 2012 when it emerged that academics had conducted experiments in which kittens' eyes were sewn up and newborn litters raised in total darkness . The most recent figures show no kittens were involved in any tests at the university in recent years.
Cardiff University says its research "is aimed at the alleviation of human and veterinary disease through the advancement of medical, dental, biological and veterinary understanding".
Campaign group Cardiff Animal Rights will be holding a public protest outside one of the animal testing facilities in Park Place, Cardiff, in conjunction with World Day For Animals later this month. The group is demanding Cardiff University stops all animal research.
It says: “There is no way to use animals in vivisection without causing immense suffering, just being in a laboratory situation and all the stresses involved will cause an enormous amount of distress for animals.”
A spokesperson from the group said: “Animals are not ours to be used, they are not here to serve us, they are their own beings with their own lives and deserve to live free from suffering inflicted by human hands.
“How anyone can go to work every single day, and to take a pay cheque to inflict pain and suffering on small animals and still be able to live with themselves is truly sickening. To abuse animals is cowardly and the world says it is time has come for this to stop.”
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Another group, the Animal Justice Project said tests carried out at Cardiff University in 2018 and 2019 included mice having their optic nerves crushed and being forced to run on treadmills while others were left to develop tumours.
“Rat were used in cruel and bizarre experiments at Cardiff University. In one study, rats had cannulas and electrodes implanted into brains which induced seizures.
"The animals were drugged with liquid ecstasy to assess their effects over an hour. In the same experiment, mice were injected into their brains and left for a month to assess seizures,” the group said.
Cardiff Animal Rights Group claimed: “Cardiff University have been conducted experiments that involve sewing rodents’ eyes shut, putting rats through “stress” experiments involving electric shocks to their feet and placing them in restraint tubes.”
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A university spokesman said he would not comment on details of the research.
“All of our research involving animals is aimed at the alleviation of human and veterinary disease through the advancement of medical, dental, biological and veterinary understanding,” he said.
“In 2018, we carried out 47,046 procedures. This includes the natural breeding of genetically altered animals, where the birth of each animal counts as one procedure.
“Our studies are ethical, necessary and socially justified when undertaken under the strict guidelines optimising animal welfare, and using methods designed to minimise pain or suffering.
“All animal-related research work at Cardiff University is carried out under the strict conditions imposed by UK legislation including stringent ethical scrutiny. “We are fully compliant with and support the intention and purpose of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.
“Wherever possible the use of animals is avoided and alternative methods are employed. We are also committed to providing open and transparent information about our research involving animals and our standards of animal care and welfare. In May 2014 we signed the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research in the UK.”
On Wednesday, April 24, from 12pm to 3pm, Cardiff Animal Rights will be holding a protest outside Cardiff University as part of a worldwide day of action called World Day For Laboratory Animals
