Harrogate Borough Council last night rejected a bid to introduce a ban on animal testing in the district.
Victoria Oldham, the Conservative councillor for Washburn, called for a moratorium on animal testing in the district at the full council meeting.
Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, is lobbying government to help Harrogate-based animal testing firm Labcorp Drug Development expand.
Protests frequently take place at the company’s site on Otley Road.
Cllr Oldham told the meeting that Beagle puppies, non-human primates. rabbits, mice and mini-pigs were used on the site.
She added:
“It has long been acknowledged that the costs of animal experiments are high and that they are not reliably predictive of what will happen in humans.
“The current drug development failure rate stands at a staggering 96% and the global non-animal testing market was worth $1.11 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow by up to $1.65 billion by 2023.
“Bearing these factors in mind, why is there an insistence that investment in medical progress needs to be in the outdated and unreliable field of animal experiments?
“Local jobs are important to our district but at what cost?
“Will you consider leading on introducing a moratorium on animal testing in the Harrogate borough?”
Cllr Oldham, an animal lover, said she “considered it to be a non-political question”.
Cllr Graham Swift, the deputy leader and cabinet member for resources, enterprise and economic development, replied:
“I don’t like and I don’t want medicines tested on animals. But the law insists medicines are tested on animals prior to being tested on humans and prior to being used as medicines.
“The recent covid vaccines are a great example of the benefits of medicines. But all drugs administered through humans are administered through this process of animal testing.
“I have great faith in science and research. New testing methods can and do and will reduce the number of animals and the duration of their use.
“So I continue to support the development of technologies that reduce animal testing. It is my hope that one day these technologies will mean that no medicines are ever tested on animals.
“But it is not possible for Harrogate Borough Council to declare a unilateral moratorium on animal testing in the Harrogate borough. It is not within our powers.”
Cllr Swift added that about a third of Labcorp’s 4,000 UK staff were based in Harrogate, which was “great for the economy”.
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He said he could facilitate a request by cllr Oldham for councillors to visit the site but added they needed to remember the company was regulated by the Home Office rather than the council. He added:
“I am confident that Labcorp are very happy to entertain councillors at their site to educate, to explain and for us to understand the progress they are making.
“I think it’s fair to say that this is a top quality company doing things for the benefit of human beings and it is not our role to simply go in there and police them.
“It is very clearly the role of the government and the authorities to do that. But it’s totally appropriate that they educate us.”
