SIR – People contributed to the British Heart Foundation’s fundraising day yesterday deserve to know that their kind donations could be used to fund vivisection.
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) funds research on animals, and the victims of this have included dogs, pigs and goats.
Yet for all the suffering it causes, animal research offers little hope of advancing medical progress, since fundamental differences between species mean that the results cannot be reliably applied to humans.
Dogs, for example, cannot develop heart disease by being fed a fatty diet, and rodents have a resting heart rate five times higher than humans.
There are numerous non-animal methods of conducting research into heart disease, including the use of ethically-derived human cells, computer modelling, microfluidics and high resolution scanning.
The BHF needs to focus solely on such techniques, which – unlike animal experiments – are directly relevant to humans.
For more information, and to find out which charities fund animal experiments, please visit victimsofcharity.org, or contact Animal Aid (01732 364546 or isobel @animalaid.co.uk) I
sobel Hutchinson, campaigner, Animal Aid, The Old Chapel, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent
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