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Campaigns against primate research
Some of the most active animal rights groups in Europe are campaigning in the European Parliament against the use of non-human primates in research. A second Written Declaration calling for an end to the use of primates in research has been put down in the European Parliament. Although Written Declarations are not part of the legislative process, they are a method that MEPs can use to express an opinion on a subject.In 2006, several MEPs put down a Written Declaration on behalf of the National Anti-Vivisection Society, a UK animal rights group operating under the name of Animal Defenders International. This called for all primate experiments in the EU to be phased out over the next six years. By the time this declaration lapsed, in January 2007, it had been signed by 88 MEPs. If an Written Declaration gets the signatures of over half of all MEP's - ie 393 of them - it is written into the minutes of a plenary session of the Parliament.
The same animal rights group had another Written Declaration on primate experiments put down in April. It currently has 174 signatures and will remain open until September.
Another animal rights group, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, recently held a press photo opportunity on the steps of the Euroepan Parliament in which a number of MEPs released activists in monkey suits from cages, to to launch the groups campaign for a ban on the use of primates in EU research.