Support Herbie’s Law (switch to humane medical research)

Herbie’s Law is an ongoing campaign presently going through Parliament, aiming to replace medical research with humane alternatives. Ruth Jones MP has tabled an Early Day Motion on behalf of Animal Free Research UK, inspired by a similar process happening in The Netherlands.

The campaign is named in honour of a beagle who was bred for the lab. He was one of the lucky ones, his grey chin hairs showing that apart from the tell-tale tattoo on his ear, he managed to escape, and ended up in a loving home (with the charity’s CEO).

Over 92% of drugs that show promise in animal tests, fail in clinical trials. Switching to humane methods of research is not just kinder, but more accurate.

Read this blog post by Kitty Block (president of Humane World for Animals), asking why animal research is still going on, despite humane medical research being far more accurate, kinder, quicker and cheaper.

Why humane research is more accurate

Humane medical research is not just kinder (no animals used) but also quicker, cheaper and more effective. If all donations from the main animal-testing charities were switched, we’d soon find cures for dementia, cancer, Parkinson’s, MS and motor neurone disease.

A London team used lung-on-chip models to test treatment for aggressive lung cancer, and rather than taking years (testing on mice), the chip tests took months, and researchers watched in real time, as cancer cells reacted to therapy. Side effects showed up quickly, so they could adjust formulas on the spot.

In this day of AI and computer technology, using real live suffering animals (which don’t share our DNA  – just a tiny difference means tests don’t work – we share a lot of our DNA with bananas, but nobody is testing on them), it makes sense to ditch animal tests and use modern effective methods.

AI (not for poets, but good for humane research)

AI is modern, quick, affordable and mostly accurate, so it’s a boon for humane research. For instance, a recent Oxford project scanned thousands of drug compounds, to compare against real patient data. It ‘learned’ (by matching genetics, brain scans and blood tests) what worked for early-stage Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s patients, then ran virtual experiments, to flag three promising drugs.

In the US, the charity Beagle Freedom Project adopts ex-vivisection dogs to new homes. You can find on YouTube heart-warming videos of volunteers removing their ‘numbers’ and giving the dogs names. On release, the dogs are hesitant. And within minutes, are are running around with fellow dogs, smiling and sniffing grass for the first time!

A recent comparison found:

• One year of rat testing for a single drug can cost up to £1.4 million.
• A full organ‑on‑chip set‑up to test the same drug costs about £300,000.
• Digital simulations are even cheaper, sometimes running for less than £100,000 per study.

Different types of humane research

• Organ-on-Chip (these are human cells from hearts, lungs, kidneys or skin that are inserted into tiny chips to create mini versions of real organs, and can find issues in drugs, that animal tests miss (like how asthma drugs affect human lungs).
• In-vitro studies put real human cells in dishes, and expose them to drugs or sickness, for early-stage safety testing, to rule out risky compounds. Countless lives have been saved with this method.
• 3D bioprinting build tiny tumours by layer, from living human cancer cells, then screen them for breast and brain cancer research.
• 3D cell cultures mimic real tissues to study healing, scarring and toxic side effects, to help fine-tune diseases and catch harmful reactions.

Support humane research charities

There are a few humane research charities to support in England, but they fund boffins to do research (not TV  ads) so you have to visit the websites to donate or help, as you won’t get heart-tugging ads, like the big animal-testing charities that spend millions on marketing and lobbying government.

• Animal Free Research UK backs projects that use human cells, tissues and digital models.
• The Humane Research Trust again only funds animal-free medical research.
• Replacing Animal Research (founded by a Wimbledon housewife) has funded humane alternatives for over 50 years.
• NAVS (National Anti-Vivisection Society) has been funding ethical research for almost 100 years, founded by Miss Frances Power Cobbe, a ‘forgotten Victorian feminist’ who campaigned against domestic abuse.

You can always donate anonymously to your favourite small charities, using Charities Aid Foundation. Add Gift Aid if you’re a UK taxpayer.

easyfundraising is a great way to raise money, as it donates money to your favourite causes, from items you already buy. Just sign up, and if you shop at one of the 6000 brands (from local zero waste shops and indie brands to Amazon and Argos), you donate simply from buying train tickets to laptops to insurance.

Retailers pays a set fee or percentage, depending on their policy. Donations are sent to charities each quarter, and the service does not affect loyalty points.

Don’t be emotionally blackmailed

This is the biggie. Because the second you decide to switch donations to humane medical research charities, the charities and nearly everyone else, will accuse you of ‘not caring about cancer patients’ or the often quoted ‘you care more about animals than humans’.

Actually, caring about humans should be about donating to charities that are using accurate methods, so this would also be donating to humane medical research. It’s a win-win.

If someone asks you to donate to an animal-testing charity, there’s no need to get into an argument. Just politely reply:

‘Thank you, but I have researched charities that test on animals, and now choose to donate to humane medical research’.

Animal welfare campaigner Karen Dawn once wrote how people would suggest that people who care about animals, ‘don’t care about humans’. Her answer was simple: compassion is compassion.

It’s not like a pie. If you have compassion towards animals, it’s likely you have just as much compassion for humans, as you’re likely a kind loving person. ‘Giving kindness’ to animals, does not mean that you then have to ‘take away’ kindness to humans’.

When George Ansell (who founded a US organisation similar to the RSPCA) was once asked why he spent time being concerned about animals, when there was so much cruelty to humans. His answer was again simple. He replied ‘I am working at the roots’.

Donate your body to medical science

Chantal Kaufmann

You don’t have to be sick to do this (researchers need say healthy brains to compare to brains with dementia in their research). It may sound gruesome, but it helps to prevent innocent animals being used in labs, and there’s nothing a researcher likes more than a cadaver!

Donation programs are very simple and respectful, and help to create better doctors, better treatments and more animal-free research.

Here are the main places to register:

• Human Tissue Authority (HTA): They oversee body donation for research and medical teaching across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Their site lists every medical school that accepts donations and answers common questions.
• Scottish Body Donation Programmes: In Scotland, each university medical school (Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, St Andrews) handles its own donations, guided by the Anatomy Act.

The paperwork is straightforward:

1. Fill out a consent form. All programmes require signed consent before death.
2. Notify your next of kin. Let family and your GP know about your decision.
3. Send forms to your chosen medical school. Keep a copy on record with family for clarity.

Why donate your body?

There are many still ‘incurable diseases’ like dementia, Parkinson’s, MS and motor neurone disease. But animal research is not just cruel, but also not very effective (vivisectionists have been experimenting for decades on apes to recreate HIV, and they can’t).

The best ways by far to find cures are humane methods (test tubes and modern computer chip modelling/AI methods) along with hands-on learning from donated bodies, often referred to as ‘silent teachers’. A frog may have a heart similar to humans, but it’s still a frog.

You need a human heart (and other organs) to find cures in the best and fastest way. Paramedics and military medics also use donated bodies for trauma response learning, and to learn life-saving procedures.

They can also be used to try out new devices and implants (hips, knees, heart valves) to ensure they are safe and effective before trying them out on living patients, and they can even help to study the body decomposition process, to help solve murders (by working out when victims were killed).

When you see those detective series, and Vera asks the pathologist ‘When’s your estimate of when the victim was killed’, that’s because of someone studying a dead body in a lab, years ago.

The story of Battersea’s ‘little brown dog’

Heroines to remember at International Anti-Vivisection Congress, 1913

The topic of vivisection (using animals to find medical cures, was just as controversial over 100 years ago.

The case of the little brown dog (whose suffering caused riots between anti-vivisection campaigners and medical students) is now commemorated as a statue in London’s Battersea Park. Victorians led the way to found societies campaigning for alternatives.

The lady in the centre was Lizzy Lind of Hageby (above front centre), a Swedish-British woman who was one of our most noted anti-vivisectionists, back in the day (along with writers James Allen and George Bernard-Shaw). She and others even enrolled at medical school, so they could fight their argument using science.

Educated at Cheltenham Ladies College, while other graduates were learning to embroider things, she was out leading rallies for animal welfare.

When in 1914 one Daily Mail journalist at Glasgow Vegetarian Society expected to find a ‘square-jawed and severe woman’ he found a ‘pretty woman with twinkling brown eyes in a blue dress’, who was so logical in her arguments that he almost converted on the spot!

Vivisection is a social evil. Because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character. George Bernard Shaw

In later years, Lizzy set up veterinary hospitals for horses wounded in the war, protested against hunting pregnant hares, opposed the sale of old horses to slaughterhouses, and opened a sanatorium in France for wounded soldiers.

She left most of her estate to The Animal Defence Trust, which even today gives grants to small animal welfare causes. What a woman!

The Victorian Founders of Humane Research Charities

Our site has heaps of posts to help you switch donations to humane research charities. These help to find cures for ‘incurable disease’, without using innocent animals. This is not just kinder and more effective, but also gets results quicker and cheaper. Switch from the big animal-testing charities (like British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and the main charities for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s today!)

This post however focuses on the movement’s history. Many writers (including George Bernard-Shaw and James Allen campaigned back in the day against vivisection). But let’s also look at the history of the main humane research charities, that use donations to fund boffins today, without any government help or support.

Robert Lawson Tait (a respected Scottish surgeon)

Robert Lawson Tait was a Scottish pioneer in pelvic and abdominal surgery, and a vocal opponent of vivisection. He  was responsible for creating a  treatment for ecotopic pregnancy that has saved countless lives since then. He also helped to open the Birmingham Hospital for Women, where he worked for 20 years.

He argued against vivisection not just on science, but on moral grounds, saying that ‘vivisection was a selfish act in which humans forced living animals to suffer, in order for their own benefit’. He wrote that the only thing he wanted on his tombstone was that he spent his life trying to persuade others not to torture animals in the name of science.

Frances Power Cobbe (the forgotten Victorian feminist)

Frances Power Cobbe was the founder of NAVS (the national anti-vivisection society). Set up in London as teh Victoria Street Society, other notable members were physician George Hoggan, journalist Richard Holt Hutton, and clergyman Henry Edward Manning.

Born into a wealth Irish family, she used her success in commercial publishing to campaign for both animal welfare and women’s rights (her essay on domestic abuse led to legal reforms, and allowed abused women to seek legal separations from their husbands).

Frances also set up The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisecton, which today remains active in the beauty world as Cruelty Free International, with a ‘rabbit logo’ to show which brands don’t test on animals.

Dorothy Hegarty (a humble Wimbledon housewife)

Dorothy Hegarty set up Replacing Animal Research in 1969. Not a scientist, she did however see how public support could help fund a world where no animals suffer for science. A humble Wimbledon housewife, she believed that bitter arguments between both sides were not working, and the solution was to fund alternatives, so everyone was happy.

The Story of Battersea’s Little Brown Dog