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Debate Sparked on "Success" of Pro-Test March

About 200 members of the group Pro-Test marched in Oxford on Saturday to declare their support for animal testing for scientific purposes and to demonstrate against “fear and intimidation” from animal rights groups.
Pro-Test is a group founded in January 2006 by sixteen year-old Laurie Pycroft, in support of the building of a new biomedical research facility in South Parks road, which is now nearing completion. The organisation’s three main aims are to “defend the rights of researchers to work in peace”; to “celebrate the successes of animal research in developing treatments for disease”; and to “communicate a better understanding about animal research to non-scientists everywhere”.
The rally began at noon with speeches made twice along Broad Street and then again at the biomedical facility. The Pro-Testers marched along Broad Street chanting, “No more fear, animal research wanted here.”
The rally was a peaceful affair until one man came to the front of the crowd and shouted while Dr Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, was speaking. The shouter was escorted away by the police.
Dr Harris said, “There was someone heckling but I didn’t hear. The point was that I had a microphone and he didn’t. He is entitled to his freedom of speech, and he has a perfectly legitimate ethical point of view.”
But he went on to say that the arguments advocated by animal rights activists are “completely wrong in some of the pseudo-scientific arguments they use”.
“It is still factually correct that animal testing is a necessity,” he added.
Evan Harris said that the Pro-Test campaign “has been an overall success, showing the public of both the necessity and the benefits of the laboratory.”
Harris’ continued support for the laboratory was backed by Tom Holder, an Oxford student and one of the main organisers of the march.
Holder believes that there are widespread misconceptions about animal testing and argues that “it should go ahead for better welfare for the scientists and the animals."“It is something about which people don’t always consider all the facts,” he said. “A lot of people still think cosmetic testing is carried out, this is categorically not true. Cosmetic testing has been illegal in the UK since 1999."
In 2006, after gathering 500 signatures in a matter of days, Pro-Test forced OUSU to hold an university student-wide referendum on animal testing. 90.4% of the votes backed a motion supporting animal testing and the building of the Oxford laboratory.In 2008, the march attracted only 200 supporters, in contrast to the 600 of 2006. However, Holder still maintained that the decrease in numbers also shows how Pro-Test is winning the debate.
“It is becoming an increasingly uncontroversial issue with the public mood now one of acceptance. Perhaps this was reflected in the turn out at the march; people are becoming less involved,” he said.
However, a spokesperson for SPEAK, an organisation which campaigns for animal rights, dismissed both the importance of the march and the completion of the new biomedical facility.
She denied that the Pro-Test movement was making headway with the public. She said, “The very poor attendance at the demonstration illustrates that the public do not support the mutilation and brutalisation of animals in the name of so-called science.”
“We are quite ready for the next phase of our campaign to change the facility from an animal torture institution to one for alternatives for animal testing,” she added.
A notice on SPEAK’s website urges supporters to protest at its “Oxford Degree Days Demo” on the 1st March.
Watch the Cherwell24 Video report of the rally.

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