THE article by Thomas Bromley of SIMR (BEN, Aug 14) entitled "Humans need these tests to continue" is both deliberately misleading and, in a number of places, simply factually inaccurate.

Firstly Mr Bromley talks about the issue of vivisection as an "emotional subject which some prey upon". As a professional campaigner for the BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection) I find this remark deeply patronising and insulting. About 2.6 million animals suffer and die in laboratory experiments every year in the UK, with an estimated 100 million used worldwide.

I became an animal rights campaigner because, from an early age, I felt morally compelled to speak out on behalf of animals who have no voice of protest of their own. I chose anti-vivisection campaigning not just because of the immense cruelty involved, but also because I wanted to combat the lies and deception promulgated by the research industry and those, like SIMR, who work to defend animal experiments at all costs.

To answer the catalogue of inaccuracies that litter Mr Bromley's diatribe, modern science is obviously a good deal more sophisticated these days than Mr Bromley appears to be aware of.

There are in fact a whole range of valid non-animal alternatives already being used and developed for research into human diseases and conditions. Cell and tissue cultures, computer organ and whole-body modelling, mathematical modelling, postmortem human studies and human volunteers are just some of the methods used.

Indeed, significant progress using these methods has been made in research into cancer, meningitis, lung disease, cirrhosis of the liver, Alzheimer's, epilepsy, diabetes and brain damage among others. Incidentally, contrary to what Mr Bromley would have your readers believe, human cell and tissue culture techniques can actually be used to replicate the whole body system -- the EDIT programme is one example, developed in Sweden.

Corrupt

Subjecting animals to painful medical experiments is not only ethically corrupt, but also a costly and misleading process. Surveys have shown that there is only a 5-25pc correlation between harmful drug effects in patients and the results of animal experiments.

There simply are no reliable animal models for diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, other animals do not always develop cancers in the same way that we do; even leading drug company Ciba Geigy has admitted that 95pc of substances passed "safe" by animal tests are rejected immediately in human studies. Significant differences between species, indeed between individual animals, makes interpretation of results in non-human species impossible to apply to humans with any confidence.

Misleading results can delay or confuse important research, and our short-sighted reliance on them will forever hold back the pace and potential of real scientific progress.

Mr Bromley talks about the "forgotten voice" of the seriously ill, as if animal experiments hold the key to all cures and conversely, anti-vivisection campaigners are opposed to medical progress. This of course is absurd. The truth is that this is a cynical exploitation of the fears of our sick and elderly, perpetrated by the animal research industry and those who campaign on its behalf. It is deeply insulting to assume that the "seriously ill" are incapable of understanding the finer points of scientific endeavour, and that in order to get them on-side one need only promise that their personal panacea lies in the suffering of millions of laboratory animals each year. On a personal note, I myself have lost several dear relatives through Parkinson's disease, cancer and Alzheimer's disease, and so I have every reason in the world to want to see medical progress in these and other areas.

But progress based on sound, cutting-edge, biologically relevant research techniques, not the antiquated assumption that results from one species can be usefully extrapolated to have relevance to humans.

If Bolton Evening News readers want to find out the real truth about both the ethical and scientific objections to animal experiments, they should contact the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), 16a Crane Grove, London N7 8NN or call 0207 700 4888.

Wendy Higgins

Campaigns Director -- BUAV