§ 62. Mr. Sandysasked the Home Secretary whether he can give figures to show the average annual number of surgical experiments performed upon animals by vivisectors without the use of an anaesthetic; and what steps are taken by his Department to ensure that the potential gain to scientific knowledge is commensurate with the suffering caused?
§ Mr. LloydI presume my hon. Friend refers to severe surgical experiments which usually involve cutting operations. The Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876, provides that experiments may be performed without anaesthetics on a certificate, called Certificate A, being given that insensibility cannot be produced without necessarily frustrating the object of such experiments. Before my right hon. Friend allows any such certificate to come into operation he always attaches to the licence a condition whereby no operative procedure more severe than simple inoculation or superficial venesection may be adopted in any of the experiments enumerated in the certificate. The kind of experiments to which, I presume, my hon. Friend refers are therefore never allowed without anaesthetics, and consequently the second part of the question does not arise.
§ Mr. PalingHas the Under-Secretary any idea of the number of certificates granted in any one year?