HC Deb 10 December 1953 vol 521 cc2157-8
10. Mr. Peter Freeman

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the fact that there were 5,723 vivisection experiments conducted on dogs under the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1874, without any an aesthetics last year, compared with 1,495 previously; what is the reason for this increase; and where they were carried out.

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

I must apologise for a mistake in the Annual Return of Experiments on Living Animals which I presented to the House.

A check of the figures submitted by licensees and included in the return has shown that owing to a clerical error, over 4,000 experiments relating to other animals were wrongly returned as relating to dogs. The correct figure for experiments carried out on dogs without anaesthesia in 1952 is 1,147, which is 348 less than in 1951. I will arrange for an amendment slip to be issued.

Mr. Freeman

While I am grateful for that correction, in view of the growing public disquiet on this matter, would the right hon. and learned Gentleman consider making a statement on this whole subject, as there has been no statement or report issued to the House since this Act was passed 80 years ago, and especially as there have been 30 million experiments on animals, on the results of which no information has been made available to this House or the public? Would the Home Secretary consider making a general statement on the whole matter, as these experiments are now running at the rate of a million a year?

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

The arrangement of the business of the House is not for me to decide, but I think it ought to be made clear that the procedures involved are, in the vast majority of cases, comparatively simple; that is, simple inoculations in the course of research into the causation and treatment of canine virus diseases such as hard-pad and distemper, and the effects of various insecticides and anti-parasitic preparations. I should not like the House to think that anything except a small minority of the cases are of a serious kind.

Mr. Hastings

Am I not right in assuming that the Home Secretary has full powers of inspection in all cases in connection with these experiments?

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

I have very full powers.