Beagle

I WAS most disappointed with your recent coverage of the allegations made by a former employee of Harlan beagle dog breeders’ Wyton ‘facility’.

My own view is that Harlan’s inviting a reporter from The Sunday Times to visit and see the ‘high standards of care’ together with the ‘committed workforce’, is actually a red herring.

In this day and age, it is shocking that members of our society are breeding dogs to be used in experimentation where they will suffer excessive pain and remain locked away, never feeling the sun on their skin or experiencing the simple enjoyment of walking on grass like our own companion animals.

This is particularly deplorable when, according to a recently published article in the medical journal The Lancet, “adverse drug reactions have reached epidemic proportions and are increasing at twice the rate of prescriptions. The European Commission estimated in 2008 that adverse reactions kill 197,000 EU citizens annually, at a cost of €79 billion.”

Scientific studies examining the reliability of animal tests in predicting human outcomes have repeatedly shown that they are no more accurate than tossing a coin.

AMANDA JAMES

Wheatley Crescent

Bluntisham