Let's make primate-free progress

The law governing the use of animals in experiments across the European Union is now being reviewed, for the first time in 22 years.

Last year the European Parliament signalled in Written Declaration 40, originated by Animal Defenders International, that it would like the European Commission to bring an end to the use of great apes and wild-caught monkeys in experiments.

Experiments on primates are poor science and attract particular concern because they are capable of experiencing intense physical and mental suffering. Around ten thousand are used in EU experiments each year.

Great apes - orang-utans, gorillas and chimpanzees - have not been used in experiments in the EU for some years and their use is banned in the UK. However many other primates, such as macaque and squirrel monkeys, baboons and marmosets continue to be incarcerated and suffer greatly in laboratories.