Protests as animal tests rise to 2.8m

Labour faced a barrage of protest today after new figures showed an increase in animal experiments.

The Home Office said tests on animals had gone up by two per cent to 2.8 million last year. The number of animals used in experiments went up 2.5 per cent to 2.72 million.

Animal rights campaigners called the figures "shocking" and said the Government had "failed utterly" to curb cruelty.

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection said last year saw the largest number of experiments since 1994.

The Home Office said 85 per cent of procedures involved mice and other rodents. Fish were used in six per cent of tests. Dogs, cats, horses and non-human primates were used in less than one per cent.

But Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Norman Baker accused Labour of reneging on a promise to cut vivisection rates.

"We should be seeing far more investment in alternatives such as cell culture and computer modelling," he said.

Home Office Minister Caroline Flint said British controls on animal experiments were "among the tightest in the world", but insisted: "This type of research saves countless lives each year."