Will Young has always been a strong supporter of our four-legged companions, and he is much more so today.
The 44-year-old Leave Right Now hitmaker turned to social media today to raise awareness for a practise that many people are unaware still occurs in the United Kingdom.
He started a petition to ban the use of dogs in scientific testing and research in the United Kingdom.
‘Hello, so you’re probably not aware that up to 2,700 dogs are still tested on in the UK in the name of research,’ the actress added in an accompanying video.
He continued: ‘Over 3million animals are tested on in the UK for science. So today I’m launching a parliamentary petition to ask for the immediate stopping of testing on dogs in the name of science.
‘Please sign it. Please share it. If you’re a dog lover, if you’re an animal lover – we are big dog lovers in the UK. Please sign it. Please encourage other people to sign it.’
You’re probably shocked to hear that over 2700 dogs are still tested on every year in the UK, please sign and share this petition for an immediate ban to test on dogs. https://t.co/clRgjMW8kk pic.twitter.com/LRGAw4d5h6
— Will Young (@willyoung) October 10, 2023
He continued: ‘Share it far and wide so we can stop this heinous thing happening to these poor dogs.’
Will said on the petition website that dogs have complex cognitive capacities and that they are subjected in laboratories to ‘psychological trauma’ and ‘destructive experiments that inflict pain and suffering.’
According to the Naturewatch organisation, the UK government allowed 4,122 controlled experiments on dogs in the UK.
While it is unlawful to test cosmetic and household items on dogs (since 1998), new human medicine, dental, and veterinary products are nevertheless tested on them.
The legislation demands that new drugs be evaluated in two separate kinds of animals before being tested on people, according to Understanding Animal Research.
This comprises a rodent species, most commonly a rat, as well as a non-rodent animal, most commonly a dog, pig, or monkey.
Animals can only be used for testing when no non-animal option is available.
The Home Office grants permission for animal experimentation in science based on a harm-benefit analysis that considers whether the anticipated harms to animals are outweighed by the likely benefits.
Will explained in his petition how ‘an All-Party Parliamentary Group has acknowledged that 92% of drugs fail in human trials despite being tested on animals.’
He continued: ‘Given the low scientific value of these experiments, combined with major advances in non-animal methods (NAMs), we believe testing on dogs should be banned, in the same way as for Great Apes since 1997.’
Human cells and computer simulations are two more non-animal techniques.
The Office for National Statistics discovered in 2020 that 96% of all experimental operations on animals that year were classified as sub-threshold, non-recovery, mild or moderate in intensity, with the remaining classified as severe.
The pain or anguish experienced by the animal being evaluated is referred to as severe.
Are medical tests painful for animals? A key in how ‘severity’ is measured, as per ONS
There are five severity assessments:
Sub-threshold: When a procedure was authorised under a project licence but did not actually cause suffering above the threshold of regulation, i.e. was less than the level of pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm that is caused by inserting a hypodermic needle according to good veterinary practice.
Non-recovery (under general anaesthesia): When the entire procedure was carried out under general anaesthesia from which the animal shall not recover consciousness.
Mild: Any pain or suffering experienced by an animal was, at worst, only slight or transitory and minor so that the animal returns to its normal state within a short period of time.
Moderate: The procedure caused a significant and easily detectable disturbance to an animal’s normal state, but this was not life threatening. Most surgical procedures carried out under general anaesthesia and with good post-operative analgesia (i.e. pain relief) would be classed as moderate.
Severe: The procedure caused a major departure from the animal’s usual state of health and well-being. This would usually include long-term disease processes where assistance with normal activities such as feeding and drinking were required, or where significant deficits in behaviours/activities persist. It includes animals found dead unless an informed decision can be made that the animal did not suffer severely prior to death.
This comes after the musician stated that he was ‘terrified’ to be homosexual under Conservative government.
Will declared last week at the Labour Party conference that if the Conservatives win the next election, he ‘won’t remain’ in the UK.
Will told the Mirror in a new interview: ‘I won’t stay in this country if they [the Tories] win. No way. It’s too terrifying.’
The former Pop Idol star continued: ‘I feel scared when you see a Home Secretary stand up and pick on LGBT migrants and talking about hurricanes. They’re picking on minorities, it’s just terrifying.’
He added: ‘It makes me feel a bit scared as a gay man. I haven’t really seen that before. It’s weird that I’m in my 40s seeing politicians making such radical statements.’
This follows Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s argument that a system in which all LGBT men and women who are ‘fearful of prejudice’ can ‘qualify for protection’ is untenable.
She also warned in a recent speech that a ‘storm’ of migration is on its way to the UK, and she received a lot of flak for it.
