HC Deb 15 January 1986 vol 89 cc1078-80 3.34 pm
Mr. Harry Cohen (Leyton)

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to prohibit all tests of cosmetics, tobacco and alcohol and similar experiments on animals; to prohibit the draize eye irritancy test and the I.D50 poisoning test; to prohibit behavioural and psychological experiments on animals; to prevent use of animals in warfare trials or experiments; to abolish the practices of hare coursing, and fox and stag hunting; to prohibit the use of domestic animals in animal experiments; to increase the penalties for convictions of causing, procuring or assisting at the fighting or baiting of dogs, cats or other domestic animals; to ban the import and sale of bull terriers and the advertising of fighting dogs for sale, including the advertising of qualities related to fighting; to regulate laboratories in which animals are bred; to reconstitute the Advisory Committee on Animal Experiments; and to promote alternatives to animal experiments.

I stress that there is no connection between this matter and the next item of House of Commons business. [Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order. The hon. Member has every right to be heard.

Mr. Cohen

I am pleased, Mr. Speaker, that this large gathering today is concerned with animal rights. The British enjoy a reputation as animal lovers. That reputation, I fear, exists more in the hearts and minds of decent British people than in the practices that are embodied in the law of the land.

The shameful reality is that 110 years have passed without improvements to the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876. My Bill seeks to bring the law closer to public perceptions of our humanitarian protection towards animals, and to distance future legislation as far as possible from the barbaric brutality allowed at present. In so doing, my proposals run counter to the Conservative Government's legislative intentions on this matter, which are to afford less protection to animals while employing a deft legislative "newspeak" to hoodwink and placate public opinion.

The Government are too squeamish to use the word "experiment" and have substituted the word "procedure" to ensure that public sensitivities are not offended while appalling cruelty to animals will actually be allowed to increase. This is a betrayal of the public's heartfelt wish to provide proper rights for animals, to see an end to barbaric blood sports and to end unnecessary animal experiments.

My Bill puts a stop to the obscenity of killing animals in the name of sport by abolishing the practices of hare coursing, fox and stag hunting. This is a Labour party policy which I should like to see enacted immediately. To their shame, the Conservative Government have twice overruled the Northern Ireland Assembly's unanimous votes to outlaw hare coursing. Perhaps this tendency to override public and parliamentary opinion will diminish somewhat when the Government are reminded that a recent poll of Conservative voters showed a majority opposed to all forms of hunting. The measure that I propose not only puts a stop to the rights of sadists to enjoy the fun of the kill while devastating our countryside but also sorts out their less well heeled blood brothers who support dog fighting. In line with RSPCA policy, my Bill would substantially increase penalties for convictions for causing, procuring, assisting or aiding and abetting at the fighting or baiting of dogs, cats and other domestic animals. It would also ban the import and sale of pit bull terriers and the advertising of fighting dogs for sale, including qualities related to fighting.

There should be stiff prison sentences for those indulging in dog fighting. The traffic in domestic animals for animal experiments must be halted. This shady enterprise is such big business in residential areas that pet shop owners in my constituency display notices warning animal owners to keep their pets under constant surveillance. What are we to make of the standing of scientific establishments which apparently fail to notice that their stock of animals for experiments consists of every breed under the sun, obviously tamed for domestic life and pining for human contact? Such establishments should have their licences withdrawn instantaneously and permanently. My Bill ensures that laboratories may obtain animals of specified breeds only from licensed breeders who can produce proper evidence of the legitimate origin of these animals. In addition, breeding establishments will be subject to regular and spot inspection and the export of animals will be banned.

The obscenity of current animal experimentation in which over 67,000 animals are killed every week is tackled in my Bill. My objective is to see animal experiments phased out within a decade. However, the overwhelming majority of tests could be abolished immediately, starting with a ban on all animal tests for cosmetics, tobacco and alcohol. The Bill would also immediately end the Draize eye test where irritants are administered without pain relief until the animal's eye bursts. The LD50 test, whereby animals are painfully poisoned until 50 per cent. of them die, would also go. In line with the Labour parliamentary campaign group for animal rights, there would be a prohibition on the use of animals in warfare trials in which they are deliberately shot at, irradiated and subjected to germ and chemical warfare. Behavioural and psychological tests on animals in which they are deliberately driven to madness for so-called "insights" into human psychosis will also cease.

At present, the Government employ 15 inspectors to check on the 21,000 vivisectionists who cut up three million animals each year. That ludicrous situation will be transformed under my Bill as a result of greater powers for the Home Office advisory committee. At present the committee is packed with either licensed experimenters or pro-vivisectionists, including Dr. Coid, the doctor responsible for designing the primate cages which featured so infamously in the recent prosecution of the Royal College of Surgeons. It is essential that the independence of the committee should be firmly established, with membership consisting of persons with a knowledge of the subject but no vested interest whatsoever by way of monetary gain or job dependency. The primary function of the committee will be the responsibility for securing a continuing and sizeable decrease annually in animal usage in laboratories.

The new independent composition of the advisory committee will also free its decision-making processes from the undue influences of the drug companies. As the Sunday People so accurately observed: The name of the game is profit and to hell with animal suffering". Research into disease prevention has been passed up because drug companies prefer animal experiments for their latest wonder cures. Thus, animals suffer in their millions as drug companies race to develop so-called "new" products, most of which are simple recombinations of other brands, an increasing number dangerous to humans—such as Thalidomide, Eraldin and Opren. Tackling causes and the prevention of illness are not as profitable as "cures", even if the latter means countless unnecessary human and animal deaths in the process. Yet, the Research Defence Committee, a pro-vivisection group funded by the drug and cosmetic multinationals, confidently assesses the Conservative Government's new legislation with the comment: I cannot think of a single experiment allowed now that will not be allowed in future. Medical research which is so bound up with the fortunes of drug companies lacks any incentive to develop alternative research. The Conservative Government, as the political voice of big business, ensure that the purse strings of state research remain controlled by the vivisectionists. They have allocated a derisory £200,000 over three years for the consideration of alternatives to animal experiments. In this scenario, human life is indeed held cheap, while animal protection counts for nothing. In conclusion, my Bill forces the parliamentary, scientific and commercial establishment to face up to the failure of their endless experiments on animals, to take account of the horrendous issue of assessing the pain and suffering endured by animals, while at the same time insisting upon medical research to follow a more civilised and effective path by using non-animal alternatives. My proposals, not the Government's, are more in tune with what the public want.

This Bill, not the Government's, recognises and responds with genuine measures to meet the growing public disquiet about animal experimentation and barbaric sports. My Bill is a Socialist measure aimed to uphold the value of human life, to free sport from a sordid blood lust and provide protection and rights for animals. It is an essential element towards the achievement of a safe and healthy environment for all living creatures in a civilised society. As Labour's programme says: We are partners on this planet with animals, not their masters. Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Harry Cohen, Mr. Tony Banks, Mr. Jeremy Corbyn, Mr. Brian Sedgemore, Mr. Roland Boyes, Ms. Jo Richardson, Mr. Doug Hoyle, Mr. Allan Rogers, Mr. James Lamond, Miss Joan Maynard, Mr. Martin Flannery and Mr. Robert N. Wareing.