Stars including Joanna Lumley and Peter Egan call for an end to monkey malaria tests
CELEBRITIES have sprinkled star quality to a campaign to save 24 monkeys from "cruel and futile" experiments.
Stars have called for an end to monkey malaria tests
The likes of Joanna Lumley, comedian Alexei Sayle, Downton Abbey actor Peter Egan, American pop star Moby have joined leading primatologist Jane Goodall to demand an end to research on the rhesus macaques for a malaria study.
Their names are on a 40,000-strong petition demanding Sweden's Karolinska Institute halt the research and release the animals from the Astrid Fagraeus laboratory.
The macaques were supplied by a primate breeder in the US for the malaria study.
American pop star Moby has signed the petition demanding the halt of animal testing
We are against all animal experiments
Claire Palmer, director of the international anti-vivisection group Animal Justice Project, which organised the petition, said: "While we are against all animal experiments, primate experiments are particularly unpopular, as is clear by our celebrity and public support on this campaign.
"Animal Justice Project urges Sweden to immediately end the import and use of primates for research and to spare the 24 rhesus monkeys who are earmarked for cruel and futile research."
Macaque monkeys are largely immune to the common form of human malaria
Primatologist Jane Goodall is against monkey malaria testing
The campaigners have accused the Swedish scientists of contravening EU law on the grounds that likely harm to the monkeys far outweighs any potential benefit to human medicine.
Macaque monkeys are largely immune to the common form of human malaria, it is claimed.