Journalists:

For press enquiries,

call 07739531256.

Medical scientists and clinicians come out in support of over 400,000 people signing  a petition against a beagle breeding farm for laboratory experiments.

The petition at change.org by Emma Hart calls for David Cameron to reverse last week's decision allowing American company B&K Universal's plans to expand a Beagle breeding farm in East Yorkshire breeding 2,000 beagles annually to be use in medical research.

Medical scientists and clinicians are adding their voice in opposition to the decision on medical grounds saying such invalid experiments are responsible for the delay to cures of chronic diseases like cancer.

Dr Adrian Stallwood MB BS Speciality Doctor in Emergency Medicine UK said:

'It is now clear that medical research using animals has failed to demonstrate that it can produce benefits for humans. Further research expansion by this dog breeding facility will only entrench a method of clinical enquiry that has thus far significantly damaged the advancement of human healthcare.'

Alex Irving, of science PR organisation Speaking Of Human Based Research seeks to counter misinformation by B&K Universal's PR organisation 'it's completely false on the part of B&K to claim animal research is necessary other than to say it's required by law. But the laws mandating animal experiments are 70 years old and not up to speed with current medical understanding. This is a medical scandal which harms patients as well as kills animals in worthless experiments. It's a scandal that needs exposing by a public science debate between opposed medical experts and moderated by impartial scientists with no vested interests either emotional or commercial'

Dr Ray Greek, President of Europeans for Medical Advancement, the leading expert in the field against using animal models for human patients says "recent developments in evolutionary and developmental biology, genetics, gene regulation, gene expression, and gene networks gained in large part as a result of the Human Genome Project, in addition to advances in understanding complex systems, have significantly increased our understanding of why animals have no predictive value for human response to drugs or the pathophysiology of human diseases.'

In further contradiction to B&K Universal's PR spokespeople, an article by the editor in chief of the British Medical Journal says there is no scientific evidence of the predictive and productive value of animals and she concludes: "If research conducted on animals continues to be unable to reasonably predict what can be expected in humans, the public's continuing endorsement and funding of preclinical animal research seems misplaced".

This radio interview delivered by the science campaign For Life On Earth after the decision by Greg Clark was made. It's a relentless call for the animal research science community to agree to debate the leading medical Board which has proven animal experiments harm humans too.