An animal rights group staged a protest at Manchester University against the use of animals for experimental purposes.
Members from Vivisection Exposed held banners and handed out leaflets on October 15 during one of the university’s open days.
The group says Manchester University ranks in the top 10 universities for the highest number of animal experiments, with more than 87,000 animals killed last year.
The University’s biological science students have various opportunities to and perform procedures on mice and rats.
Vivisection Exposed said: “We need students to know vivisection happens in their University and they need to help us stop it. If we are not present then no one will be educated.”
The group was formed in 2019 and started with Liverpool and Newcastle as primary locations but as of 2022 the group practices targeted pressure campaigns at 18 breeding and vivisection sites across the UK.
The team aims to bring evidence of Vivisection to the general public by exposing companies, universities and charities that continue to use animals in practice.
Manchester’s representative for Vivisection Exposed said: “We all have the same passion and that is to make the public aware of what is happening to vulnerable animals behind closed doors guarded by security.”
The team said that the people of the UK are unaware of the use of animal testing in products that they purchase and hope that in making the ongoings public knowledge customers will switch to cruelty free alternatives.
The Manchester University website says animals are only used when absolutely necessary and if no other alternative is available – they believe that animals are required to progress drug treatments for a number of diseases.
Being a signatory to the “Concordat On Openness In Animal Research,” the University pledges both transparency and public access to research they conduct involving animals.
They follow the three R’s – Replacement, Reduction and Refinement – to carry out research that is aimed at finding ways to avoid the use of animals.
The university’s own website shows in 2021 it used more than 2,000 more animals than it did in 2010.
For more information about Vivisection Exposed and how you can help them, visit the ‘take action’ page on the Vivisection Exposed website as well as signing and sharing online petitions.
For further information about the protests and locations visit their Facebook page or website.
