| Ex laboratory Beagle given award
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Issue: 14/09/2018
At a star studied event tonight last Thursday at the Grosvenor House Park Lane, London, a rescued ex-laboratory Beagle, Scarlett, was honoured with the Daily Mirror Animal Hero, Inspirational Animal of the Year award.
Scarlett received the award because she is turning her terrifying past into a bright future for millions of laboratory animals, in her new role as Beagle Ambassador for the science-based campaign For Life On Earth (FLOE).
Scarlett was imprisoned for two years in a toxicology laboratory where dogs are typically force fed chemicals for up to 90 days with no pain relief or anaesthetic. Scarlett's traumatic start in life has left her with terrible Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Her symptoms include a terror of noises, fear of being covered and serious issues with eating.
Scarlett is helping FLOE call for a rigorous public scientific debate, judged by independent experts from the relevant fields of science, about claims that animal experiments can predict the responses of human patients.
Scarlett's supporters include Ricky Gervais, Paul O'Grady, Peter Egan, Chris Packham and Dr. Jane Goodall. Over 100 MPs have signed Early Day Motions calling for this scientific debate. Michael Mansfield QC has endorsed he debate's conditions as "well set out and fair".
Ricky Gervais says, 'Meeting Scarlett and sensing her painful past will stay with me forever. Like all dogs she is incredibly gentle with a heart of gold, but the horrors of two years in a toxicology laboratory are etched in her eyes and body language.
'This was clear, even in the relatively short time I spent with her. I'm delighted to have signed an Open Letter calling for animal experimenter Prof. Colin Blakemore to face the world's leading medical opposition to such experiments, in a public science hearing judged by independent experts. I want people to be able to understand how these shocking experiments are now proven to also fail humans.'
Opposition to using animal testing for human patients is now widely reported by the scientific community outside the vested interests of animal-based researchers.
The Editor in Chief of the British Medical Journal, Dr Fiona Godlee published her Editor's Choice in 2014, on the failure of animals to predict human outcomes.
The Food and Drug Administration states that nine out of 10 new human medicines fail to pass the human/clinical drug testing stage because animals fail to predict human outcomes.
The National Cancer Institute has said we have lost cures for cancer because studies in rodents have been believed.
Scarlett's Inspirational Animal of the Year award is helping to revoke an outdated 70-year-old law which still requires animal testing. After this law is banned, medical research funding can then be re-directed towards viable non-invasive testing.
