Projects approved by the Home Office are all anonymised to prevent anyone knowing which institutions carry out the studies. The location is also withheld so it’s impossible (without detective work) to know which licences have been approved in Wales.

By Georgina Rednall

In his recent article ‘Path dependency and the rescuing of the biomedical research enterprise’, Dr Zaher Nahle alerts us to Industry’s attempts to make non-animal methods (NAMs) merely complements to animal experimentation.  The premise is that using NAMs alongside animal models can form ‘a unique, rare hybrid’ that will be hard to imitate. He warns that ‘in the event of the "complements" systems becoming widely used, as intended, extricating one component from the mix then (i.e., removing the animal component) is next to impossible. (…) Making NAMs mere ‘Complements’ to animal experimentation is the modern-day Trojan Horse of the animal- industrial complex to occupy the NAMs space.‘

In November 2025 the UK Government published its promised strategy to phase out animal testing.  Despite some animal advocacy organizations welcoming the document, our reading concurs with those who feel it represents a 'smokescreen to buy time for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries'.  (Dr Andre Menache, leading scientific expert on medical research)

Opposition to vivisection in Wales has existed for over 150 years. It was closely linked to the broader British movement, notably through Frances Power Cobbe, an Irish writer, philosopher, social reformer and leading suffragette. In 1875 she founded the world's first anti-vivisection organization, later renamed the National Anti-Vivisection Society or NAVS.