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Ethics of Research involving animals

Appendix 1: Statistics - Use of animals in the

Examples of the numbers of animals used for different purposes by humans, 327
UseNumbers used
Animal research (see Appendix 2)UK (2003): 2.79 million1
Food2UK (2003): Total 900 million – 1 billion Including:
  • Poultry
  • Cattle
  • Sheep
  • Pigs
  • Fish
  • UK(2003):871 million broiler chickens (for meat)
  • 27 million hens for egg production
  • UK (2003): 10.4 million
  • UK (2003): 33.6 million
  • UK (2003): 4.6 million
  • UK (2003): 631,400 tonnes3
Working animals
  • Guide Dogs
  • Police Dogs
  • UK (2004): 5,0004
  • England and Wales (2003): 2,5005
Clothing
  • Wool
  • Fur
  • UK (2002/03): 24.9 million sheep6
  • Fur farming is now prohibited in the UK7
Leisure/ Education
  • Wildlife observation
  • Companion animals/Pets
  • Zoo
  • Circus
  • Hunting/shooting
  • not available
  • UK (1995): More than half of all households have a pet –
  • 7.2 million cats,8
  • 6.5 million dogs, 1.2 million rabbits, 135 million
  • ornamental fish9
  • UK (2003): 160 registered zoos10
  • UK (1997): 21 circuses with animal acts, 545 wild and exotic animals11
  • UK (1999): 178 fox hunts, 3 deer hunts, 83 hare hunts and 20 mink hunts
  • per year12, approximately 4,000 hounds a year put down13
Sport
  • Horse racing
  • Greyhound racing
  • UK (2005): 14,000 horses in training14
  • UK (2005): 10,000 new greyhounds registered with the National Greyhound
  • Racing Club each year15
Pest control
  • UK (2002): 1,300 pest-control companies – mice, rats, wasps, bees 16

Footnotes

1 Home Office (2004) Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2003 (Norwich: HMSO).
2 DEFRA (2003) Statistics in Animal Health & Welfare Strategy for GB: The Evidence Base, available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/environment/ahwseb.pdf. Accessed on: 3 May 2005; see also RSPCA (2005) Farm Animals,
available at: http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RSPCA/Publications/FarmAnimalsPublications&articleid=0.
Accessed on: 3 May 2005.
3 DEFRA (2004) United Kingdom Sea Fisheries Statistics 2003, available at:
http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/publications/fishstat/uksfs03.pdf. Accessed on: 3 May 2005.
4 Royal National Institute of the Blind (2005) Facts and Myths about people with sight problems, available at:
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_empfacts.hcsp. Accessed on: 4 May 2005.
5 BBC (2003) Crime Fighters: Policing – Police Dog Unit, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/fighters/policedogunit.shtml.
Accessed on: 4 May 2005.
6 The British Wool Marketing Board (2004) Wool statistics, available at: http://www.britishwool.org.uk/a-factsheet4.asp.
Accessed on: 4 May 2005.
7 Under the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Act (2000) mink farming was banned in the UK from the beginning of 2003. British Fur
Trade Association: see British Fur Trade Association (2004) available at: http://www.britishfur.co.uk. Accessed on: 3 May 2005.
8 A survey estimated that domestic cats kill 300 million wild animals annually, see The Mammal Society (1998) Look what the
cat’s brought in!, available at http://www.mammal.org.uk/catkills.htm. Accessed on: 3 May 2005; A four-year cat predation
study done at the University of Wisconsin estimated that rural free-roaming cats kill at least 7.8 million and perhaps as many
as 217 million birds a year in Wisconsin. See Coleman JS and SA Temple (1995) How many birds do cats kill? Wildlife Control
Technology 44.
9 Animal Aid, available at http://www.animalaid.org.uk/youth/topics/sport/intro.htm. Accessed on: 3 May 2005.
10 Zoos UK (2003), available at: http://www.zoos.50megs.com. Accessed on: 3 May 2005.
11 BBC News (1998) Protect Circus animals call, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/201483.stm. Accessed on: 3
May 2005.
12 Burns Committee report on hunting with dogs (submitted to Secretary of State for the Home Department in 2000).
13 Burns Committee report on hunting with dogs (submitted to Secretary of State for the Home Department in 2000).
14 The Jockey Club (2005) Key facts, available at: http://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/about/aboutframeset.html. Accessed on: 4
May 2005.
15 National Greyhound Racing Club (2005) Frequently asked questions, available at:
http://www.ngrc.org.uk/default.asp?articletype=Fact%20Sheets. Accessed on: 4 May 2005.
16 Office of Fair Trading (2002) Review of undertakings given by Rentokill Initial plc: A consultation paper, available at:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A4D14148-39FB-42F7-8C11-AE3CE796DE85/0/oft392.pdf. Accessed on: 3 May 2005.

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