Petition UK Government must oppose the propsed EU directive of the killing of surplus lab animals by a 'percussive blow to the head'.

Under new EU regulations on the welfare of laboratory animals, it is proposed that these animals can be killed inhumanely by clubbing them to death, a proposal that may become UK law by 2013.

For the benefit of quicker and cheaper methods, the proposal covers very young dogs, kittens, ferrets and foxes, yet this would leave some animals in chronic severe pain, suffering or distress, as well as inhumane killing. Many of these animals are likely to have been bred specifically for use in experiments only to be killed because they are surplus to requirements.

The very fact that these innocent animals are cruelly abused in laboratories in the first place is a disgusting fact.

We trust that the UK Government will maintain Britain’s higher animal welfare standards by vigorously opposing the proposed EU directive which would otherwise allow the organised cruelty of animals to take place within British laboratories.