Protestors light up tram bridge with ‘Notts Uni Tortures Animals’

Animal rights protesters lit up Nottingham's Ningbo Friendship tram bridge with "Notts Uni tortures animals" on Wednesday evening

The protest was carried out from 5:30pm to 7pm by Nottingham Animal Rights with some members of the Uni's Animal Rights society participating. They were protesting the way in which the university uses animals in its experiments.

The university has said that it meets strict Home Office guidelines meaning “no animal is subject to unnecessary suffering”, and that their research improves the lives of animals and people.

25,449 procedures were carried out on animals at the university during 2016. Animals involved in the testing include mice, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, ferrets, pigs, sheep, cattle, and fish.

A university spokesperson has said: “No animal is subject to unnecessary suffering in our research to better understand health and disease and improve the lives of both animals and humans.

“All the procedures using animals at the University of Nottingham are regulated by the Animals Scientific Procedures Act 1986 and meet the strict guidelines set out by the Home Office.”

Huw Longman, spokesperson of Nottingham Animal Rights, told The Tab Nottingham: “We believe there is no longer a requirement to carry out barbaric and cruel experiments on animals with such huge advances in technology for animal-free research which provide tangible results without causing distress, injury and death to animals.

"We imagine the public in Nottingham are unaware of what is happening to animals in our city, and the Light Brigade is an opportunity to change this”.