Animal Testing

Olly Glover Excerpts

Monday 27th April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I thank the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for her passionate introduction of the topic. I also thank the 238 of my constituents who signed the petition, the many who have written to me about it, and those who I have met at constituency surgeries.

There are three key reasons why we need to do much better on animal testing and move towards ending it. First, it is unethical in many cases; it has distressing side effects and often continues the suffering of animals when completely unnecessary. Long-lasting confinement to small cages, continued lack of social interaction and intrusive experiments can all contribute to extreme emotional and physical effects.

Secondly, animal testing leads to detachment from recognising that animals are living beings. According to the National Library of Medicine, the emotional and social behaviours of dogs and cats, for example, are comparable to those of young children; I declare an interest here, because my favourite animal is a cat. It is absolutely possible to have a conversation with a cat—I appreciate that many in this room will take that as further evidence for questioning my sanity, but I have had prolonged conversations with cats, albeit admittedly on their terms and using their language. One wonderful thing about cats is their enormous diversity of personalities: they all have their own character, likes and dislikes, and that is why they are so fascinating. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has said:

“Animals in laboratories are treated like disposable laboratory equipment”,

rather than as the emotional living beings that they are. Animals being tested on can experience psychological distress, including anxiety and depression.

The third key reason is the availability of alternatives: there are several emerging human-relevant models that can replace animal testing—artificial intelligence has already been mentioned, but there is also the advanced use of human cells and tissues, which can hopefully provide more relevant results. Having mentioned cats, it is sad to see, in the 2024 statistics of scientific procedures on living animals in Great Britain, that the number of experimental procedures on cats increased by 30% between 2023 and 2024. We need to be going in the other direction.

Many of my constituents have also written to me expressing their concerns about the treatment of beagles—a topic that the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) covered in detail—and voicing concern about the seemingly contradictory approach that the Government are taking. Although they published their long-awaited strategy on animal testing in November 2025, since then the Government have authorised the use of more than 6.5 million animals in experiments over the coming years. Those experiments authorised by the Home Office include monkeys being subjected to invasive brain surgery, tests to do with eyes being done on rabbits, bile being collected from dogs, and many other upsetting things that other hon. Members have also described.

In conclusion, the Government are right to say that they are taking a step forward in their strategy, and I know that many campaigners will welcome that. They are also right that we need a realistic plan for how we can end all animal testing and find other ways to safely test new medicines and treatments. However, many of my constituents and many campaigners will feel that what has been proposed so far does not go fast or far enough. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s comments.