OUR WORK BEHIND THE SCENES ANNUAL REVIEW 2014 Working for research animals
Our work for laboratory animals is led by our
research animals science team, who work with
those involved in the regulation, care and use of
animals in experiments, both nationally
and internationally. Replacing lab animals is
our primary goal, and we work to achieve
reductions in the use and suffering of animals -
including our ground-breaking initiative to end
severe suffering.
In 2014 our work for research animals included:
❙ Challenging the government and scientists to do more to
tackle severe suffering.
❙ Establishing expert working groups to set out specific ways
to end severe suffering in arthritis and septic shock research.
❙ Helping the European Commission establish guidance
for member states on how they should regulate
animal experiments.
❙ Delivering training courses on ethics, replacing animals and
animal welfare to government inspectors, scientists and vets
in China, Croatia and Bulgaria.
❙ Initiating a project with RSPCA Education to ensure that ethics
and animal welfare are incorporated into university courses
for future scientists.
❙ Helping members of animal ethics committees better
challenge whether and how lab animals are used.
Working for wildlife
Our wildlife science team uses sound research to
improve welfare and protect wild animals from
threats such as oil spills, culls, trapping, hunting,
their trade and inadequate care as pets or when
otherwise kept in captivity. Our wildlife centres
provide a safe haven for wild animals in trouble.
After nursing them back to fitness we rehabilitate
and release them, often monitoring how they fare
in the wild.
In 2014 our work for wildlife included:
❙ Publishing a report calling for a ban on keeping primates
as pets.
❙ Working with Monkey World in Dorset to establish a
marmoset rehoming project.
❙ Working with groups across the world on producing
protocols for rescuing and rehabilitating oiled sea birds.
❙ Initiating a project to encourage the public to report the
sale of glue traps, so we can contact the retailers and
encourage them to stop selling these inhumane traps.
❙ Recruiting RSPCA Exotics Officers in response to increasing
numbers of calls about exotic pets, such as reptiles.
❙ Researching into the Canada geese population at Lake
Windermere in Cumbria.
❙ Developing licensing conditions for amphibians and reptiles
in RSPCA animal centres.
Becky Murray, E A Janes, Andrew Forsyth/RSPCA Photolibrary.
To find out more about our science teams' work, visit: www.rspca.org.uk/sciencegroup and scroll to the
bottom of the page to view the RSPCA Science Group Review of 2014.