British Airways is facing a legal battle from scientists trying to end the airline’s blanket ban on flying lab animals, according to reports.
The Times says that “although airlines carry animals if they are pets or for zoos, campaigning by animal-rights activists has meant that almost all refuse to take them if they are for medical research”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The newspaper is backing the scientists, in an editorial that argues: “This research saves lives. Not one major recent breakthrough in treatments for premature babies, cancer, diabetes, cystic fibrosis or Parkinson’s disease would have been possible without it.”
The US National Association for Biomedical Research, a non-profit organisation representing animal researchers, has filed a complaint with the US Department of Transport against BA and three other airlines - United Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Qatar Airways.
The complaint argues that in banning animals bound for labs while carrying others if they are pets or for zoos, the carriers are “breaking rules concerning discrimination”, The Times reports.
Kirk Leech, from the European Animal Research Association, said that over the past decade, there had been a “haemorrhaging” of airlines willing to carry lab animals, because of “potential PR problems”.
“Animal research is a global endeavour,” Leech continued. “They are bred in one part of the world and transported to another. This is a drastic step, but there seems to be no way forward. Airlines have refused to budge.”
BA and the other three companies have until 26 September to respond, before the Department of Transport launches a formal investigation
-
Shohei Ohtani is caught in a financial controversy — againIn the Spotlight The controversy concerns Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo
-
A descent into academic Hell, a ferocious feminist fable and the adult debut of a beloved children's authorThe Week Recommends August books include R.F. Kuang's 'Katabasis,' Xenobe Purvis' 'The Hounding' and Louis Sachar's 'The Magician of Tiger Castle'
-
What is an upside-down car loan and how do you get out of it?the explainer This happens when the outstanding balance on a car loan exceeds the vehicle's worth
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
What would happen to Earth if humans went extinct?The Explainer Human extinction could potentially give rise to new species and climates
-
Bad news, alpha males. You likely don't actually exist.Under the radar Most primate communities are egalitarian
-
Scientists and Peter Jackson attempt to bring back an extinct bird — kind ofIn the Spotlight Colossal Biosciences was the company behind the 'resurrected' dire wolves
-
Scientists want to regrow human limbs. Salamanders could lead the way.Under the radar Humans may already have the genetic mechanism necessary
-
A potentially mutating bat virus has some scientists worried about the next pandemicUnder the Radar One subgroup of bat merbecovirus has scientists concerned
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
