Editorial: Home Office Project Licence Information goes Online: Increased Transparency about Animal Experiments or a Mere Attempt to Silence Critics?

Michelle Hudson

A number of organisations have campaigned for many years for increased openness with regard to why and how animal experiments are conducted. For too long, animal rights extremists have exploited the secrecy surrounding animal experimentation to stigmatise and terrorise individual researchers and research organisations that undertake laboratory animal procedures. This, in turn, has made scientists ever more reclusive and defensive, and has made it extremely difficult for organisations genuinely concerned with animal welfare and alternatives to be confident that the Three Rs are an integral part of any project involving animal experimentation.