SIR – Tomorrow marks World Day for Animals in Laboratories – a day, recognised by the United Nations, to remember the millions of animals who are used and killed in animal experiments around the world.

Every year inside British laboratories, more than 3.5 million animals are subjected to experiments. Medical charities, for example, fund disease research in which monkeys are deliberately brain-damaged, and dogs have their hearts systematically destroyed.

In depression studies, genetically-modified mice are dropped into beakers of water and monitored as they make frantic attempts to save themselves from drowning, eventually moving to despair, defeat and immobility.

Animals are sentient creatures, capable of experiencing pain, fear, loneliness, frustration and sadness. To incarcerate them and deliberately inflict pain on them in the name of science is unacceptable.

And not only are these experiments cruel to animals, they are also potentially harmful to people, because species differences mean that the results cannot reliably be extrapolated to humans.

Drugs that are shown to be safe in animals may later prove to be dangerous in humans, while valuable cures and treatments can be missed if they fail in animal tests.

Contact Animal Aid for a free End Animal Experiments pack at info@animalaid .org.uk, or on (01732) 364546.

Ashley Owen, Animal Aid, The Old Chapel, Bradford Street, Tonbridge