Cambridge's animal lab tests challenged

Britain's Cambridge University faces a legal review amid allegations its researchers ignored safeguards to protect laboratory monkeys.

A high court allowed anti-vivisection campaigners to challenge the animal experiments. The ruling was based on an undercover investigation by the campaigners of a laboratory where experiments were being done to help develop treatments for Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, the Independent newspaper reported.

The groups claimed one of its investigators working as a technician found monkeys whose heads had been sawed off at the top to induce strokes. The allegations said laboratory staff often finished work at 5 p.m., leaving some paralyzed monkeys unattended for up to 15 hours, while others were found dead in the morning or kept in very poor conditions.

Richard Drabble with the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection told the court documents found by the campaigners contradicted the general perception that animals were well cared for and protected under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.

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