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Written question asked by David Drew (Labour) on Wednesday, 3 February 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 5 February 2010. It was answered by Lord Davies of Stamford (Labour) on Tuesday, 9 February 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Chemical Weapons: Animals

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many (a) pigs, (b) primates, (c) dogs and (d) goats were used in tests (i) conducted and (ii) commissioned by his Department in each of the last five years;
Answer

In accordance with UK legislation Dstl Porton Down submits annual returns to the Home Office detailing the number of procedures undertaken which involve the use of animals as defined in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.In the years 2005 to 2009 the annual returns to the Home Office, broken down by dog, goat, mouse, pigs and non-human primates are detailed in the following table together with the total numbers of animals used.

Dogs Goats Mouse Pig Non-human primate Total
2005 0 0 20,016 127 54 21,118
2006 0 0 15,986 123 52 17,045
2007 0 0 17,095 74 75 18,257
2008 0 0 10,404 113 55 11,380
2009 0 0 7698 96 149 8,168

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
505 c812W; 316352
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Animals Chemical weapons Animal experiments
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk