British war department’s cruel animal experiments

This video from Britain says about itself:

May 17, 2012

During 2004, two UK television documentaries were produced which investigated the past activities of the UK Government’s Biological Warfare facility at Porton Down, Wiltshire.

The programmes revealed that scientists from Porton Down had used the UK as a vast outdoor laboratory during the Cold War. From 1950 to 1975, Porton scientists had clandestinely sprayed massive amounts of live bacteria (Serratia marcescens, E. coli MRE162 and Bacillus subtilis) and several tons of chemical compounds (such as Zinc Cadmium sulphide) over large parts of the UK.

The first programme shows – how Royal Enfield workers in an underground factory at Westwood Quarry were repeatedly exposed to an opportunistic pathogen in the early 1950s; how members of the public travelling on a regular railway train on the Salisbury-Exeter line were sprayed with live bacteria by Porton scientists while travelling through a tunnel; how the city of Salisbury was ‘attacked’ during August of 1960 with large amounts of a cadmium compound: and how Porton sceintists conducted the large, and now infamous, series of experiments – known as the Lyme Bay Trials.

The latter experiments exposed millions of UK residents to massive aerosols of live bacteria (E.coli and Bacillus subtilis) during the years 1963-1975. The huge bacterial clouds were sprayed from an Admiralty ship – ETV ICEWHALE – and were carried onshore by the wind and sampled by Porton scientists up to 50 miles inland. Athough this research was meant to be of a defensive nature, the official Porton film of these experiments stated: “Whilst these trials were designed for specific research purposes, they demonstrated, in a striking way, the feasibility of small-scale biological warfare. An appreciable dose of viable bacteria was achieved over an area greater than 1,000 square miles, by the release of only 120 gallons of suspension”.

From the (Conservative) Daily Telegraph in Britain, about the British Department of War … oops-a-daisy … ‘defence’:

Rise in animal experiments at defence laboratory

Almost 10,000 experiments were conducted on animals, including monkeys and pigs, at the Porton Down military research base last year, it has been revealed.

By Telegraph reporters

3:35PM GMT 18 Dec 2012

The number of animal tests carried out at the top-secret facility in Wiltshire increased by 300 since 2010 and by more than 1,000 since 2009.

Currently 21 licensed animal procedures are under way at Porton Down Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL).

Most of these fall into the “substantial” severity category which may cause “significant or prolonged animal suffering”.

Six of the projects cover work funded directly by US defence agencies.

The details were disclosed in a series of written answers from junior defence minister Philip Dunne.

He was responding to parliamentary questions tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock, the member for Portsmouth South.

Mr Hancock said he was shocked by the statistics which, until now, were never made generally public.

Last month the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection highlighted “disturbing and cruel” experiments at Porton Down, said to include live pigs being blasted with explosives and forced to inhale mustard gas, monkeys being infected with anthrax and guinea pigs being killed with nerve agent.

Mr Dunne, the minister responsible for defence science and technology, listed the number of animal procedures undertaken at DSTL Porton Down over the last three years.

The figure has risen from 8,452 in 2009 to 9,582 in 2010 and 9,882 last year, he revealed.

The animals involved were pigs, rabbits, monkeys and rodents.

All scientific experiments on animals, including those at Porton Down, have to be licensed by the Home Office under the proviso that suffering is minimised as much as possible.

Procedures are graded according to the severity of harm or suffering they inflict.

Of the 21 “active” projects at Porton Down, four are “unclassified”, three are “mild”, six are “moderate” and eight are categorised as “substantial”, said Mr Dunne.

A moderate procedure may cause animals a “noticeable degree of pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm”, according to the Home Office definition. Substantial severity “may cause a major departure from the animal’s usual state of health or well-being with significant or prolonged animal suffering”.

Mr Hancock said: “I was shocked to learn that almost 10,000 animal experiments are taking place at Porton Down every year, including ones inflicting substantial levels of suffering.

“The details were not included in the annual statistics published by the Home Office and many people will be totally unaware that this suffering is occurring.

“It is important that the Ministry of Defence routinely gives more information on its use of animals so the public can be fully informed.”

…

BUAV chief executive Michelle Thew said: “It is alarming that almost 10,000 animal experiments for military purposes took place in 2011 and that many animals were subjected to the most extreme suffering categorised by the Government.

“Some of the animal research conducted at Porton Down was even funded by the US defence agencies.

“The BUAV is calling for an end to the use of animals, including monkeys and pigs in these gruesome experiments. We need to ensure the safety of soldiers and civilians but the answer does not lay in blowing up or exposing animals to lethal chemical warfare and nerve agents.”

A REPORT published by the Ministry of Defence admitted that some trials of chemical agents on human volunteers at Porton Down from the 1940s to the 1970s involved “serious departures” from ethical standards: here.

Related articles

• Britain: ‘Cruel’ Secret Military Experiments At Porton Down Exposed (infiniteunknown.net)
• Military Experiments Blew Explosives at Pigs and Infected Monkeys With Anthrax, Group Alleges (medicaldaily.com)
• Pigs blown up, guinea pigs poisoned and marmosets given anthrax: Campaigners expose ‘cruel’ secret military experiments at Porton Down (dailymail.co.uk)
• Live pigs ‘blasted with explosives and monkeys infected with anthrax during cruel experiments’ (independent.co.uk)