Don't Let Them Finish Building Oxford University's New Animal Lab!

Don't Let Them Finish Building Oxford University's New Animal Lab!



article from arkangelweb.org:
Cost of Building the Oxford Lab Could Reach £100 Million

It has been reported that the British Government have agreed to underwrite the costs that might be incurred by universities wanting to build new animal research laboratories. A staggering £100 million has been pledged by the Labour Government in order to protect the new animal research laboratory build at Oxford University.

Originally the cost of the project was estimated to be in the region of £18 million, but now those costs have sky-rocketed because of the campaign that is being fought by the anti-vivisection group 'SPEAK'. The fact that such colossal costs are now being talked about clearly highlights the fact that the build has become more than just about a single laboratory project.

Such expenditure makes the new laboratory financially unviable and therefore irrelevant in the smaller context of sustaining the use Oxford University previously had for it. However it is a clear indication of the importance the Labour Government has placed on the lab being completed. Given the fact that there is now stiff competition from India and China within the biomedical industry, failure to do so would be a massive set back for their plans to make Britain a major player.

Work on the site only recently resumed in December 2005 after having been halted in July 2004 after Montpellier, the company building the laboratory,pulled out because of pressure being brought to bear on them.

SPEAK have vowed to oppose the building of the lab and in a statement issued by the group at the time of work resuming in an article entitled 'A Call to Action' the group stated "The next year’s campaign promises to be hard fought, and we will oppose Oxford University every inch of the way. They should know that those in the animal rights movement are at their strongest when their backs are against the wall. Remember, the animals have no one but us and we cannot fail them. Their lives, the lives of the people in this country and the future of vivisection rest in our hands."

Visit www.speakcampaigns.org.uk to help!