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22
Jul
'A national scandal': Animal rights protesters demonstrate in Harrogate
A protest was held yesterday (July 21) outside a Harrogate laboratory that tests medicine on dogs.
Labcorp, on Otley Road, has made headlines since the 1970s over its animal testing in Harrogate.
The company says this helps to develop life-saving and life-enhancing medicines for diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
However, campaigners argue the testing is unecessary and harmful to animals.
Campaigners from Save The Dogs UK demonstrated outside the firm's headquarters, making the protest "less shouty" and instead angling it as a funeral for all the dogs who have died, wearing black and holding white flowers.
Nicola Bromley, one of the campaigners who made a speech at the protest, said:
The testing is not needed anymore – we’re in 2026. They want us to believe that the animal testing is so they can save lives, but that’s not the case anymore, we know there are already alternatives that exist.
The dogs used at Labcorp are bred at MBR Acres in Cambridgeshire, and are sent to one of four laboratories across the UK for biomedical research.
The protestors also object to MBR Acres having a ‘bleeding licence’, meaning they are allowed to harvest blood and organs from the dogs.
Protestors marched outside the building.
Campaigners from Save The Dogs UK say they are quietly trying to change things in a ‘safe’ way that MPs can get behind.
It comes as the Labour government has pledged to phase out testing on animals.
Ms Bromley said the move from Labour was welcome, but argued that ministers needed to move quicker.
She said:
The government policy is to phase out animal testing, which is great, but you can’t have a phase out policy when you’ve got a facility that is allowed to breed dogs on industrial scale, continuously. About 2,000 dogs they’ve currently got. The problem is we don’t know exactly what they’ve got as there is a veil of secrecy around everything.
Previous protests have included some outside the Harrogate company.
Ms Bromley added that there was too much "secrecy" around animal testing.
Campaigners said they have submitted hundreds of Freedom of Information requests to government asking about breeding permits, but are often left frustrated by the response.
Ms Bromley said activists feel they have the "right to see" the information. She said:
We have about 300 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and on that lots and lots of information is redacted, so we don’t even know what questions to ask. We just want government produced documentation that we have a right to see, nothing that’s produced commercially from Labcorp.
We are frustrated at the unnecessarily redacted things we’re getting back – it’s a balance, we understand, but it’s a balanced tipped in their favour. They hide more than they should.
Government policy
The government are working to phase out animal testing, and the number of procedures using animals is at a record low. The use of animals in testing is also thoroughly regulated, with the Home Office confirming that there is "an enforcement regime conducted by the national Regulator".
The Stray Ferret also asked the RSPCA for its view on this, and it said it was: "deeply concerned about the use and potential suffering of any animal in research and testing".
It did however highlight that "as long as there are requirements for animal experiments, breeders will continue to operate" and that if facilities like these were closed down the dogs would just be bred elsewhere.
The Stray Ferret approached Labcorp for comment but has not had a reply.
Labcorp previously said it takes “very seriously” the ethical and regulatory responsibilities to treat research animals with the “greatest care and respect”. It added testing new drugs on animals “is the right thing to do”.
Marshall BioResources (owner of MBR Acres) said that the activists were spreading "misinformation" and that animal welfare is central to what they do, and also argue that animal testing is still necessary as "no alternative can yet fully replicate the biological interactions that occur within a living body".
The statement continued:
Every aspect of the dogs' care is subject to strict UK regulation, and our facilities are heavily regulated and regularly inspected by announced and unannounced visits by the Home Office.
The real facts are that the dogs at MBR are cared for every day of the year by trained staff. Their living spaces are rigorously cleaned, while their health and behaviour are closely monitored to ensure high standards of welfare.
Small blood samples are taken under strict guidelines designed to minimize any pain or distress, always under on-site veterinary supervision. In the few cases of terminal blood sampling, this approach is strictly regulated.
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