Animal Testing at Liverpool University

Merseyside Animal Rights has obtained information indicating that the University of Liverpool conducted 12,936 experiments on animals in 2023, with a further 3180 mice and 892 zebra fish that were killed without being experimented on. None were re-homed. We obtained the information via a Freedom Of Information request. The overall figure for the previous year was 14,358.

1212 of these procedures inflicted severe pain on the animals used, 4559 inflicted moderate pain, 4275 inflicted mild pain, 2376 were described as ‘sub-threshold’, indicating they didn’t inflict any noticeable pain on the animal, while 64 led to ‘non-recovery’, meaning they were performed under general anaesthetic and from which the animal did not recover consciousness.

Of the animals used the vast majority were mice with 10,039 being experimented on, followed by 1305 sheep, 602 cows, 306 domestic fowl, 300 rats, 284 hamsters, 87 rabbits, and 13 roe deer, each and every one a sentient creature with the ability to feel pain.

No breakdown of these figures was provided this year for the intended use of these experiments, eg. basic research, education purposes, studying human diseases, etc.

The figures we have obtained since 2014, when they first started recording them, show a decrease in recent years in the numbers of experiments, following a period of steady increase. It is hoped that this decline in the use of animal experiments will continue.

2014     14,753
2015     23,157
2016     22,266
2017     19,969
2018     23,612
2019     25,346
2020     15,282
2021     20,839
2022     14,358
2023     12,936
2024     14,112

The University of Liverpool claims to embrace the principles of reduction, refinement and replacement (known as ‘the 3Rs’) with regards to animal testing, and to be committed to the development of alternative methods. In terms of refinement, which refers in part to how much pain is inflicted on animals, the numbers of experiments inflicting severe pain have increased, from 690 in 2019 to 2,463 in 2022, reducing to 1,212 in 2023, clearly contradicting any meaningful commitment to refinement.

Whilst the overall combined figures for experiments show a reduction, there has been a huge increase in the numbers of sheep used in 2023, whilst the number of animals killed without being used has barely changed in the last five years. The numbers of rats and rabbits experimented on have also remained broadly consistent.

The use of non-human animals as models for both toxicity testing and human disease research is increasingly being called into question. Differences between species means that the results delivered are often inaccurate and frequently dangerous. Nine out of every ten new drugs developed and passed as safe and effective in animals never lead to any human benefit due to ineffectiveness or unexpected toxicity when trialled in people. The use of non-human animals is actually delaying medical progress as well as posing a safety threat to those who volunteer for drugs trials.

Positively, in recent years, there has been a shift in focus towards the replacement aspect of the 3Rs with calls from within the scientific community to accelerate the replacement of animals in research and testing with more human relevant alternatives on both scientific and ethical grounds. Unfortunately, the University of Liverpool seems determined – despite its claims to the contrary – to remain bound to the outdated animal model for research.