WICKHAM RESEARCH LABORATORIES carry out experiments on animals to suit the needs of huge multinational companies, who would probably prefer that the puplic did not know that their products were tested on animals.
Wickham Laboratories have always been extremely secretive about the type of work carried out there. they refuse to talk to the press or the public and even to answer questions put to them in the House of Commons claiming "client confideniality".
However, evidence has come to light showing that hundreds of mice are being killed there every day to test the potency of a highly toxic substance known as BOTOLINUM TOXIN. The test being used is the notorious LD50 poisoning test, which was banned by the Government in1999 (except where there was exceptional scientific grounds) because of the terrible suffering caused to the animals, and also because of the unreliability.
LD50 involves dosing a group of animals with varying doses of the substance to determine the dose which will kill half the animals; at the end of the procedure all will be killed.
"BOTOX" is the generic name given to botolinium toxin, when used for cosmetic purposes, and this is the area growing most rapidly. It is used to smooth out wrinkles to reduce signs of ageing, but because it can be used for certain medical procedures, e.g. squints, it has slipped through the barrier banning cosmetic testing on animals. Botox freezes the muscles, so the mice used in these tests will suffer loss of vision, seizures, and finally the diaphagm will become paralysed so that eventually the animals suffocate to death.
A battery of non-animal tests is already in existence, which could and should replace animal-poisoning tests.
Not con tent with killing an estimated 80,000 animals a year, Wickham Laboratories owner, William Cartmell (a vet) has made numerous attempts to expand his evil business to a site at Lower Upham, a small village n ear to where he owns a property, Torbay farm. In 1984 he applied for pemission to build a beagle breediong unit there, and later was given permission to use one of the buildings on site for an expansion of the work being carried out at the Wickham Labs. In 2002, Mr Cartmell submitted plans to build a state of the art laboratory at Torbay Farm, which was refused after going to appeal. A further application to have land designated for "research and development" has also recently been refused. All these attempts have been met with tough opposition from the local people at Lower Upham, who do not wish to see the ugly face of vivisection rearing its head in their peaceful village.
When Mr Cartmell became a vet he took an oath promising his "highest priority shall be the welfare of of the animals commited to my care". Now it appears his highest priority is to make money out of the thosands of animals being tortured in his laboratory. What sort of a man can deliberately authorise the suffering inflicted on so many helpless animals simply to make money?
What sort of people come to work everyday in these labs to count the number of tiny bodies found "dead in cage" and then set to work killing those who have survuved by gassing or cervical dislocation?
ANSWER: THE PEOPLE WHO WORK AT WICKHAM RESEARCH LABORATORIES.
