Greg Knight – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason scientific experiments on cats are permitted.

Norman Baker

Cats, along with some other species, are given special protection by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and may only be used if no other species is suitable or it is not practicable to obtain animals of any other species that are suitable for the purposes of the relevant programme of work. It is my objective to minimise the use of cats as far as possible.

Cats are primarily used in the development of veterinary medicines and techniques, and in neurological research. Much of the veterinary research is for the benefit of cats, for example in developing vaccines for feline diseases and improved diets for cats.