By Animal rights protest held at Humberside Airport
Animal rights campaigners held a demonstration this weekend over dogs they say are flown from Humberside Airport for use in animal testing.
Hull Animal Rights Team said beagles are bred at MBR in Cambridgeshire and sent to Ireland to be used in testing.
Sharing their cause to Facebook, Free the MBR Beagles said: “Last month we exposed Humberside Airport for their links to the vivisection industry. Beagles from MBR Acres, transported in Impex vans, were flown to Dublin for experimentation and testing.
“Over thirty activists attended Humberside Airport this morning (23 January), in order to express their disdain for its unacceptable involvement in the animal testing industry.
“As exposed by Free the MBR Beagles very recently, Humberside Airport is used by MBR Acres and B and K in the shipment of MBR Beagles to the vivisection industry.
“No longer can they hide their dirty secret.”
Protesters set up a camp in 2020 at the breeding facility for medical research at MBR Acres in Wyton, Cambridgeshire.
Singer Will Young handcuffed himself to the front gates in November and comedian Ricky Gervais has repeatedly called for the facility to close.
According to Hull Animal Rights Team, beagles are taken at 16 weeks old and used in toxicity tests where they will be “forced to inhale and ingest chemicals leading to heart failure”
The process, which lasts between 28 – 90 days, is “slow and agonising and always leads to death”.
Roughly 40 protesters attended the demonstration, which aimed to promote public awareness and to tell Humberside Airport to stop their involvement in laboratory tests on beagles.
MBR, whose full name is Marshall Bioresources, told the BBC: “The UK has the most demanding regulations in the world – placing greater requirements on those who propose using animals in medical research than any other territory and demanding the highest welfare standards.”
“Overwhelming scientific opinion” was that results from dog testing when added to work in other species gave “data that best predict human responses to drugs”, it added.
Campaigners previously filmed and released footage they claimed showed dogs being put onto an aircraft at the airport in Northern Lincolnshire.
A Humberside Airport spokesman said: “While we respect the rights of people and organisations to carry out protests, we ask that they do so peacefully, respecting the safety of passengers and employees while onsite at Humberside.”
(Image: Hull Animal Rights Team)
