In Britain nearly five million experiments upon live animals are carried out each year. The safeguard for the public conscience is the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876 and over the years there have been many demands to revise the legislation.
Most recently the report of the Littlewood Committee contained more than eighty recommendations designed to bring the law up to date. The Report has been gathering dust ever since it was published in 1965. Now scientists are using new breeds of animals-some derived by hysterectomy techniques and described as 'germ free.' Experimental work grows with each new scientific discovery.
Fyfe Robertson reports on the dilemmas posed by the mounting toll upon animals.
from the South and West