International Primate Day – 1 September 2006

(2006-08-21)

The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) proudly announces that it is a signatory to the Berlin Declaration: -

“The following declaration seeking and end to the use of primates in research was made by Animal Defenders International (ADI) and 25 other animal groups, and academics who attended the Fifth World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences in Berlin in 2005. After the Congress, ADI called on other organizations and individuals worldwide to sign up to what is now called The Berlin Declaration, and 70 groups have joined the Declaration:”

“Animal protection organisations and scientists have united to call for an end to the use of non-human primates in biomedical research and testing. We urge governments, regulators, industry, scientists and research funders worldwide to accept the need to end primate use as a legitimate and essential goal; to make achieving this goal a high priority; and work together to facilitate this. In particular, we believe there must be an immediate, internationally co-ordinated effort to bring all non-human primate experiments to an end.”

Signatories include the Born Free Foundation, the Humane Society of the United States, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA in the UK) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) of which the NSPCA is a member.

The Statement of Policy of the SPCA movement is that it stands opposed “to all experiments or procedures that cause pain, suffering or distress.” The NSPCA supports the development of techniques that will result in the replacement, reduction or refinement of animal experimentation (known as the concept of the 3 Rs). The NSPCA regards as an advance, any technique that will completely replace the use of animals, reduce numbers used or reduce suffering.