Portsmouth MP signs animal rights petition
A Portsmouth MP has signed up to what is thought to be the biggest animal rights petition of all time.
Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock took the petition directly to the prime minister at 10 Downing Street, along with other animal-loving politicians of all parties.
It calls on the government to end experiments on animals.
Animal welfare group Uncaged, which is behind the petition, collected 1.5m signatures in towns and cities across the UK. It comes as the European Union is due to revise European law on animal experiments.
Mr Hancock said: 'It is clear that the British public is very concerned about experiments on animals.
'Increasingly, there are better ways to develop and test the efficacy and safety of medicines.
'Yet we see the opposite – the number of experiments in the UK has been increasing recently to over three million a year. I believe the vast majority of these are unnecessary. The number of experiments on animals and particularly on mammals and primates should be kept to an absolute minimum.
'I hope that this petition and the vast number of signatures that it has attracted will impress on the British government the need to take a strong position in Europe and also towards an end to animal experiments wherever possible.'
>> Vote in our latest web poll.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
