Shining a Light on Suffering - Cruelty Free International

Why undercover investigations are necessary

Animal experiments, and their regulation, are shrouded in secrecy. In our view undercover investigations have been the only reliable way to obtain comprehensive and accurate information about animal experiments in the UK (and in many other countries) and play a critical role in shining the spotlight on a matter of public interest.

In our experience, it is often entirely up to animal researchers to decide which information they disclose which means that they can prevent access to information about what is done to animals in laboratories and for what reason. That is the very information in which the public is most interested. Animal researchers can, in effect, have a veto over the information that governments can disclose to the public and elected officials.

Researchers do sometimes voluntarily put information into the public domain, however, our experience in the UK has been that such summaries may not be full or reliable, characterised more as an exercise in public relations than a genuine attempt to inform the public.

Our track record

Cruelty Free International has significant expertise in conducting and managing the outcomes from undercover investigations of animal laboratories. A summary of some key findings demonstrates the importance of such investigations, the unlawful practice which they have revealed, and the resultant impact:

Our investigations of the primate trade have been instrumental in exposing the international supply of non-human primates for the research industry resulting in a ban on the use of wild-caught monkeys in research in the UK (now an EU wide ban as of 2010).

A judicial review arising out of our investigation of primate neuroscience research at Cambridge University resulted in major publicity and revealed that the relevant minister was unlawfully reserving the ‘substantial’ severity category for a small subset of projects.

Our investigation at Wickham Laboratories Ltd, a contract-testing laboratory, revealed a glaring conflict of interests for the veterinary surgeon, the effective owner of the company. He subsequently stood down and the Home Office minister issued guidance to prevent such conflicts arising in future. The investigation also revealed that the minister was not assessing, in advance of an animal test for quality control batch testing for particular substances, whether there was an alternative which could be used instead. Following a judicial review by Cruelty Free International, the minister issued detailed instructions to the inspectors to ensure that there is such prior assessment. The European Medicines Agency also pledged to review all its authorisations for redundant testing.

As with numerous previous investigations, the Cruelty Free International investigation at Imperial College London revealed appalling animal suffering on a very large scale, unlawful regulation by the Home Office, wholly inadequate care of animals by Imperial and its staff and inadequate enforcement by the inspectorate. The UK Government’s advisory committee, the Animals in Science Committee, was then critical of standards and the culture at Imperial. The Government secured the resignation of the Establishment Licence-Holder, the person in overall charge of animal experiments at the College.

Following our investigation into experiments on wild baboons in Kenya, Newcastle University in the UK announced that it would stop its involvement in these controversial experiments and, after our investigation of neuroscience research on macaques at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany revealed significant suffering of monkeys, the German authorities investigated the institute and launched criminal proceedings against some of the employees.

Our investigation of an animal testing facility in Spain, Vivotecnia, caused international concern about the poor practices in use there. A criminal case is still ongoing (2025), and, in the meantime, the investigation has helped to raise awareness within the scientific community of the need to ensure good practice.

Get involved

Our experience of the endemic secrecy in the animal testing industry reinforces our belief that well conducted and carefully managed investigations are a vital tool to ensure that the truth about the suffering of animals in laboratories is revealed. With your support we can continue to shine a light on the suffering of animals and work to consign animal testing to the history books.

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