SAVE PRIMATES_____________________

BUAV Primateshand in a 163,000 signature petition at Downing Street in August 2005 calling for a total ban on primate testing in the UK. ©BUAV We currently have a real opportunity to get a ban on all primate experiments across Europe – but we need your help.

The European Commission (EC) is currently reviewing the law that governs all animal experiments in Europe. We are pushing hard for a ban on primate testing to be included within the revised law*. But to do this we need to show the Commission the strength of feeling that exists against primate tests.

Please send an email to the European Commission, using the form below, and ask them to ban primate tests. It will take you just a few seconds but will help hugely in putting pressure on the EC to ban these deeply immoral and scientifically flawed experiments.

We have included some text for you to use in your email. If you have time to add your own message then please do so, as a personalised email has more impact than a standard one.

* A ban on primate experiments is just one of the ECEAE’s demands from the revised law. Click here for more information.

First Name:

Last Name:

Your Email:

Country:

Your Message:

Dear Commissioner Dimas,

I am writing to ask you to include a ban on primate experiments within the revision of European Directive 86/609.

Just like ours, the social and emotional needs of primates can never be met in sterile laboratory cages. Intelligent and complex, primates have unique personalities, follow social rules and, above all, share many capacities for both understanding and suffering with humans. What's more, they also share with us the ability to remember past events, to have desires, to anticipate and plan for future events, and to form concepts. This means that they can be harmed not only by the pain that scientific procedures frequently cause them, but also by the stress of being in a laboratory environment. It is utterly immoral to use them as expendable tools for research.

Primates tests are deeply scientifically flawed as well. The fundamental problem is that for all the similarities, there are significant species differences between human and non-human primates. Researchers are  forced to crudely model diseases or conditions in monkeys that they simply don't  suffer from, such as Parkinson's Disease or HIV, by injecting poison into their brain or even cutting holes in the brain itself. This is very different from studying a naturally occurring disease in a human patient. Furthermore, the stress caused to primates by confinement in laboratories and the procedures they are forced to undergo causes them extreme stress, which distorts results. For all these reasons, it is little surprise that the data obtained from primate tests simply cannot be reliably applied to humans. And tellingly, after decades of research on primates, scientists have failed to make significant breakthroughs in treating HIV or AIDS, Alzheimer's Disease, or stroke - all human conditions which have been t oroughly and pointlessly explored through primate research.

The take-up and further development of alternative methods requires progressive leadership and a clear commitment from Europe. However, this is a positive opportunity: scientists are increasingly recognising that investment in non-animal methods is repaid with relevant, accurate and specific data. It's clear that a ban is desperately needed. Not only would it end the suffering of the tens of thousands of primates that suffer in EU laboratories, but it would send a clear signal of intent to an animal experimentation industry dogmatically wedded to the animal model, despite the profound suffering it causes and the clear evidence that it is failing, irrelevant and outmoded.

Please include a ban on primate experiments within your revision of Directive 86/609.

Yours sincerely

The ECEAE or its member organisations would like to keep you updated about animal testing. Please tick this box if you would like to receive this information:

If you would prefer to send a letter to the Commission instead, here is the address you should use:

Mr. Stavros Dimas
Commissioner for Environment
European Commission
B-1049
Brussels
Belgium