From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Animal testing Main articles Alternatives to animal testing Animal testing · On invertebrates Frogs · Primates · Rabbits · Rodents Animal testing regulations History of animal testing History of model organisms Laboratory animal sources Toxicology testing Issues Biomedical Research Animal rights/Animal welfare Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act Great Ape research ban International trade in primates Controversial experiments Britches · Brown Dog affair Cambridge University primates Pit of despair Silver Spring monkeys Unnecessary Fuss Companies Charles River Laboratories, Inc. Covance · Harlan Huntingdon Life Sciences UK lab animal suppliers Nafovanny · Shamrock Groups/campaigns Americans for Medical Progress AALAS · AAAS Boyd Group · BUAV Dr Hadwen Trust · PETA Foundation For Biomedical Research National Anti-Vivisection Society Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Primate Freedom Project Pro-Test · SPEAK Research Defence Society Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Writers/activists Colin Blakemore · Carl Cohen Gill Langley · Ingrid Newkirk Neal Barnard · Jerry Vlasak Simon Festing · Tipu Aziz Categories Animal testing · Animal rights Animal welfare Related templates Template:Animal rights This box: view • talk • edit

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) is a British animal protection group based in London, which campaigns for the complete abolition of all animal experiments. BUAV engages in education, research, lobbying, investigations, including undercover work in laboratories, and legal cases that further the cause of the anti-vivisection movement. It also promotes non-animal alternatives.

The BUAV is widely regarded as one of the most respected and effective animal protection organizations in the world. It is currently the chairing organization of the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments. ^[1]

BUAV was founded in 1898 by Frances Power Cobbe, campaigning at first against the use of dogs in vivisection, and came close to achieving success with the 1919 Dogs (Protection) Bill, which almost became law. In recent years, it successfully lobbied the British government into abolishing the oral LD50 test in the 1990s. The BUAV was also closely involved in the lobbying which led to the adoption in the European Union of the 7th Amendment to the Cosmetics Directive, which will effectively ban both the testing of cosmetics products and their ingredients on animals and also the sale of products in the EU which have been animal-tested anywhere in the world.

In recent years, the BUAV has focused its attention in a number of new areas, including the promotion of non-animal tested products; the European Union's REACH proposal to test tens of thousands of chemicals on millions of animals; and the use of non-human primates in experimentation.

The BUAV helps consumers to identify and purchase products which have not been tested on animals through its Humane Cosmetics and Humane Household Products Standards. These are audited accreditation schemes for retail companies which confirm that neither their products nor their ingredients are tested on animals. These standards are also run in a number of European countries and in the United States. A full list of approved companies is available and regularly updated on the BUAV website.

The BUAV promotes National Cruelty-Free Week which publicises the availaility of cruelty-free products in July every year. [1]

Among the BUAV's many undercover investigations, the most recent (September 2006) exposes the breeding and supply of monkeys from Nafovanny in Vietnam for experimentation in Europe and the US. Recent previous investigations include the University of Cambridge and Covance's contract testing laboratory in Germany. The BUAV is at present pursuing a judicial review against the Home Office as a result of its findings in the Cambridge investigation. (See Cambridge University primate experiments.)

In recent years, the BUAV has taken an increasingly firm stand against what they regard as animal rights extremism. The then BUAV campaigns director, Alistair Currie, wrote in May 2006 that: "The choice for the public is not between supporting the extremists and supporting the animal experimenters: there is a third way. We have a very powerful case and it's our experience that when people learn of both the suffering of animals in laboratories and the scientific failings of using animals, they will come over to us. We’re completely convinced that we’ll win this argument by changing hearts and minds, not by intimidation, blackmail and forcing people to change their behaviour against their will. ^[2]

• Cambridge University primate experiments
• Nafovanny

• BUAV website
• BUAV animation
• European Coalition to End Animal Experiments