Jenny Seagrove Blasts Animal Experiments In New PETA Ad
For Immediate Release:
21st July 2008
Contact:
Alistair Currie: 020 7357 9229 ext 245; [email protected]
Sam Glover: 020 7357 9229 ext 229; [email protected]
London – Grasping the bars from inside a jail cell next to the tagline “I Am Not a Guinea Pig”, respected actor Jenny Seagrove stars in a brand-new ad from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The ad (attached) – which debuts to mark the Home Office’s release today of the animal experimentation statistics for 2007, showing a 6% rise on 2006 – goes on to say, “As many as 92% of drugs that pass animal trials fail in humans. Animals and people are different – except when it comes to feeling fear and pain”.
Seagrove’s illustrious career spans more than three decades and includes starring roles in a multitude of hits – from the 1983 film classic Local Hero to the recent BBC drama series Judge John Deed. “I don’t believe there is a place for vivisection in our modern society for several reasons”, says Seagrove in her exclusive interview with PETA . “[Animal testing] is unreliable. There are so many other ways of testing drugs – in these days of computers, micro testing, tissue cultures, etc, that using sentient beings is totally unnecessary.”
Released today, the official Home Office figures for 2007 show over 3.1 million animals used in laboratories in 2007 in over 3.2 million procedures – 6% up on 2006, itself the highest figure since 1992. Animal experiments in the UK were reduced by half between the 1970s and 1997, but since 2000, the numbers have been rising. Just last year, PETA released a public opinion poll conducted by YouGov showing that more than half of the British public agreed that the government should have a strategy to reduce the number of animals used in experiments.
Animals in laboratories are shocked, infected, burned, poisoned and surgically mutilated in experiments which cannot reliably predict human responses. US Food and Drug Administration figures show that 92 per cent of drugs which pass animal trials are found to be unsafe or ineffective in human trials and never reach the market.
Seagrove says, “[W]ith all the other various means of testing that modern science offers, it is bewildering to read that vivisection continues”.
For more information and to view the ad, please visit PETA.org.uk.