Political Impact
An integral part of the Camp Beagle strategy has been to put animal testing back on the political agenda and to build political pressure to change the law. Animal testing is cruel and scientifically flawed, but it is legal and licenced by the Home Office. It is a change in the law that is ultimately going to save all the laboratory animals from a continuous cycle of suffering and death. We encourage our supporters to engage with their MP to help build political pressure and keep this topic high in the political agenda. Our petitions have attracted support from many celebrities such as Faye Winter, Kirsty Gallacher, Chris Packham, Gemma Collins, Jesse Wallace, and Tom Hardy.
We have run four petitions and collected over 100,000 signatures each time, which is the minimal target required to be considered for debate.
Here is a summary of our four previous petitions, a link to the briefing MPs were sent with the arguments to support the petition during the debate, and a link to watch the debates.
End testing on dogs and other animals for development of products for human use
121,854 signatures
Read the briefing for MPs here.
Debated April 2026
Ban immediately the use of dogs in scientific and regulatory procedures
257,938 signatures
(It reached the 100,000 signatures target in just 4 days)
Read the briefing for MPs here.
Debated April 2025
End the use of animals for toxicity tests & prioritise non-animal methods (NAMs)
109,378 signatures
Read the briefing for MPs here.
Debated February 2024
Ban commercial breeding for laboratories. Implement reform to approve & use NAMs
102,230 signatures
Read the briefing for MPs here.
Debated January 2023
All debates were well attended by a cross section of MPs from, Labour, Conservative, Liberals, SNP, Green Party and Independent parties. At our last debate 27 MPs stood up to support our petition. During the debates MPs spoke of the cruelty involved in animal testing and the scientific flaws of using animal models to predict human effects, and offered approaches the government can consider to end animal testing.
During the first debate (2023), the government remained adamant that there was nothing they could do, then during the second debate in February 2024, the then Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology stated, for first time in modern history, that “more can be done” and announced five interventions to support the acceleration of non-animal alternatives in research, and the more rigorous regulation of animal testing.
Whilst a step in the right direction, these promises did not go far enough, particularly regarding funding, as they fell short of the millions that need to be redirected away from animal testing and towards NAMs. But they represented a significant political shift which set the ball rolling toward ending animal testing.
This historic political shift was echoed in the Labour Party’s pre-election manifesto which promised to make a plan to phase out animal testing. When our third petition was debated (April 2025), the promised plan had not yet been published, therefore the government failed to commit to any concrete action, other than mention the their upcoming plan to phase out animal testing.
Finally in November 2025, the Government launched the new plan to phase out animal experiments, but unfortunately, it falls short of expectations as it does not include key features such as a clear timeline with targets and an actual date for when no more animals will suffer in UK laboratories., and it lacks the basic measures required to shift toward modern, cruelty-free science. Instead, it focuses on defending animal testing and commits to only minor changes with no real transformative impact.
During our 4th debate (April 2026) more MPs than ever spoke against animal testing, many of them urging the government to improve the newly published plan to phase out animal testing and demanding the inclusion of a clear time line to end all animal testing and proactive steps resulting in accountable reduction in the use of animal in laboratories.
The publication of a plan to phase out animal testing, even if it does not go far enough, demonstrates the Government recognises the growing societal demand for an end to the use of animals in scientific experiments. Therefore, we must continue to build political pressure and raise more public awareness.