London's World day for animals in laboratories

At least 2,000 people took to the streets of London after meeting at Cavendish Square in strength and unity to protest against animals in laboratories worldwide and the horrible practices they are put through as a result of testing and experiments. London, United Kingdom, 24/03/2010.

The peaceful march began at 1.45pm and snaked it's way down Regent Street, past Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar square and Parliament square eventually winding up at Dean Stanley Street. Following this, many protesters made their way to King's Cross St Pancras, opposite an unoccupied site in Brill Place. The land here was purchased by the UKCMRI (Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, University College London and the Wellcome Trust) and it has proposed to build a 'superlab' upon it. This is only a plan and no applications have been made. The protest today was a clear message against the proposals, specifically from the animal rights movement and anti-vivisectionists.

According to some research, side effects from medical drugs are responsible for 18,000 deaths each year. They are also the fourth biggest cause of premature death after heart disease, cancer and strokes. Campaigners believe that the millions of pounds in investments in medical charities are being wrongly allocated on unreliable animal testing as opposed to solid medical research such as cell cultures and computer models. The WDAIL state that, "The victims are not only the 3 million or so animals killed in experiments each year within the UK, but also the many thousands of human patients killed or seriously injured by drugs which were deemed safe because they passed animal tests."