Animal Aid recently held its annual Mad Science Awards.
These prestigious' prizes go to researchers conducting grotesque and pointless experiments on animals.
The theme for this year was science's forgotten victims - rats.
Rats have four legs and a tail, live for only two to three years, have no gall bladder and cannot vomit. We are so dissimilar that they can never serve as a reliable predictor for human health. They can, however, suffer - and they do.
Rats are highly intelligent, inquisitive and sociable animals. To inflict appalling suffering on them in the name of science shows that animal research in the UK is both illogical and devoid of compassion. For further information about Animal Aid's Mad Science Awards, visit www.animalaid.org.uk.
Kate Fowler-Reeves, Animal Aid, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent.
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