i have been to an animal breeding centre in the UK where they breed aimals to be tested on but they also do some testing as well at the labs its called Huntingdon Life Sciences in Leicestershire. they send the animals all over the world.
what i found was odd was my teacher worked there and she was my small animal teacher and she also works at west midland safari park. we got a tour of the centre (she tried to get the bus to leave early from college so i couldnt go as she had a feeling i would kick off
) we got to see all the mice and rats in there little cages in the air tight bubble things. i also got to hold baby marmoset which where so small they held on to my thumb it broke my heart when i had to hand them back. alot of the staff where very close to the animals (mainly the ones that are breed from as they stay there the longest) they would walk around with them on there shoulders or they would get to stay in a little cold metal cage. they told us about when they first started breeding the monkeys alot died as they need lots of vitamin D which they would normally get from being in the sun.
after seeing them we walked over to the where the beagles were kept, seeig them was one of the worst parts of it as they just would stay at the back of there cage some were friendly but nearly all didnt like people. alot of the dogs had to have daily bloodtest which was written on there charts on the front of there cages. but they seemed to think that lettig them out to play indoors for a while was good enough for them.
after that we went in to a meeting room where we got to see the bunny section on a TV, as only the rabbit staff could go in there in boiler suits and masks. most of the cages where outdoor rabbit runs, they had toys shavings hay and fresh veg and got to run around and play with each other. there was another section in the sterile barn thing, which had single rabbit hutched which where rather small and there was thousands of them, i didnt get to see in thoughs as we just watched on the CCTV. what i though was ood is that we had to wait for them to phone up and tell the staff that we where about to look at them. they seemed to thin that giveing them fresh veg and a good living space was good enough and made up for what they would grow to have done to them, even though they where shipped out all over the world and alot went to china and japan.
i strongly disagree with any animal being tested on. just because there so small and there is so many doesnt mean we can just use them
(sorry for any spelling mistakes)
