• Queen’s researchers killed 12,508 animals last year
• 1,329,013 animals were killed by unis across the country last year
• Science’s victims include cats, dogs, rabbits and over 950,000 mice

Freedom of Information requests submitted by The Tab to every university in the UK have shed light on the murky world of vivisection.

In a single year Queen’s have killed over 12,000 animals in pursuit of science. This number included a massive 10,922 mice, 1,538 rats, 39 guinea pigs and nine bunnies.

On a national scale Edinburgh top the table killing a whopping 226,341 animals every year predominantly using mice, fish and rats for their research.

Oxford University’s 202,203 casualties included 29 monkeys, 18 pigs and 43 badgers as well as 192,793 mice but at least they beat Cambridge who massacred almost 60,000 fewer animals.

At Oxford that represents a massive five mice killed for every one student studying at the university.

Newcastle Uni euthanised macaques (left) and marmosets (right)

Alongside Oxbridge it was also Newcastle University and KCL who were guilty of killing monkeys.

Newcastle saw off 14 macaques and 6 marmosets whilst KCL euthanised 39 marmosets.

Cambridge killed 36 “primates” but did not specify the species.

Studies have shown that pigs are smarter than a typical three-year-old child yet 403 were killed at British universities in the last year.

Britain’s most bloodthirsty unis

Alongside Edinburgh and Oxbridge it’s KCL, Imperial and Stirling that complete the ‘Big Six’ of animal testing unis as the only institutions in the country euthanising more than 100,000 animals annually.

While they’re busy with that, spare a thought for scientists at the University of Derby. Whilst their day jobs don’t involve killing anything they do have 1,000 crickets indulging in a daily lab-based shag fest with the noble aim of better understanding their mating habits.

Britain’s most vulnerable animals

Mice were by far the most popular target representing over 75% of the animals being used in deadly research. Queen’s killed nearly 11,000 of them.

Fish came second due to the widespread laboratory use of the Zebrafish which is frequently used as a model organism in studies focused on human gene functions.

Britain’s most vulnerable pets

Some of the animals used in experiments at Queen’s did escape an untimely end. A QUB spokesperson claimed that for non-medical field based research, the majority of the animals are released back into the wild after the study.

However, she also added that animals judged to be “in poor health” upon capture would be killed where the researchers deemed necessary.

For those less fortunate animals, QUB euthanises them all “humanely”, “using techniques approved under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (Draft Guidance January 2013)”. The uni states that the animals killed this year are all given “appropriate” pain relief before and after procedures which they say “may involve pain”, and all experience the “highest level of animal care and welfare” before being finished off.

Queen’s has declined to give further detail on the specific levels of pain and lasting harm to animals in these experiments. They state that each case is reported to the Home Office on a project to project basis. Due to the time and effort of retrieving these results, the uni did not provide any information on pain for animals being experimented on.

Michelle Thew, CEO of The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), told The Tab: “The details of some [university] research will not only surprise but disgust.

“Tests have involved forcing rodents to inhale diesel fumes to investigate their harmful effects and deliberately inflicting high levels of stress on baby animals to see if having a stressful childhood causes mental health issues in adulthood.

“Many members of the public are under the illusion that all animal experimentation is vital for human health benefits, whereas this couldn’t be further from the truth.”

QUB claim that for their part, “approximately 95%” of the animals euthanised were used for medical research. The other 5% of the animals, however, were used in non-medical research, involved in studies that focus on ecology and, ironically, animal health and welfare. Queen’s cited investigations into squirrel pox virus, noise pollution on fish and the effects of parasites on animal health.

You can see the full results of our national investigation by downloading the raw data here.