There are no project licences with primary availability at MBR Acres. This project licence is held at another establishment, B&K Universal Limited, but it has secondary availability at MBR Acres.
Non-Technical summaries (NTS) are produced as part of the project licence application process. NTS are periodically published by the Home office and are meant to be a concise, jargon free, summary of a project licence for a non technical reader. In reality that give away very little and in most cases it is difficult to work out who the establishment is. As the licence was released for MBR Acres we can however identify the corresponding NTS which means we can find some of the redactions like the other species and numbers which are Mice: 50 and Guinea pigs: 50.
Although the project licence estimates that 275 dogs will be used over a 5 year period this forecast will be based on a much smaller colony of dogs held at B&K before Marshalls bought the Wyton site in April 17. Volumes of blood and plasma are also based on the B&K significantly smaller colony.
It is a simple request to increase the numbers in a project licence, but of seemingly little consequence even if permission is not sought.
For instance:
- ASRU Annual report in 2019 shows under just one project licence an additional 11,725 zebrafish were bred than authorised, the remedial action was just a letter of reprimand and retraining.
- ASRU Annual report in 2021 shows under just one project licence an additional 1,043 mice were bred than authorised, the remedial action was inspectors advice.
For blood MBR Acres have a live donor colony (comprising of some of the stud males or any suitable grade 2 males/females or retired breeder bitches) which may be bled up to four times a month, to a maximum of 15% of their circulating blood volume, typically from the jugular vein, these dogs may be used for several years. At the end of their useful lives, the named veterinary surgeon (NVS), will decide if they should be sold to a customer, killed, terminally bled out along with harvesting their organs, re-homed (very unlikely this is a commercial company ) or moved to another establishment.
Additionally, MBR Acres specialises in the bleeding out (or exsanguination) of dogs under terminal anaesthesia i.e. the dogs are alive for part of the procedure. When there are large orders for blood or if a customer requires fresh animal tissues or fluids e.g. liver, bile, bone, then ex-breeding, stock unsuitable for sale (some with mild congenital malformation), unsold dogs and surplus stock dogs will be used for terminal bleeding. If demand exceeds availability they may also deliberately increase breeding.
The licence states that to harvest maximum volumes and meet certain customer specifications such as ‘must be barbiturate free’ or ‘fresh and never frozen’; procedures will be carried out on live donor animals or on dogs under terminal general anaesthesia. In order to obtain maximum volume of blood for sale the preferred method is cardiac puncture, this is literally bleeding from the heart. The dogs are alive when drained of blood firstly as customers do not want contamination of euthanasia drugs but also a pumping heart ensures speed and that the last drop of blood is collected for sale.
The project licence says that the dogs will be intubated (a tube down the throat and into the windpipe) and that the terminal bleeding process will normally be finished within an hour. It then says the animals will be humanely killed – REALLY – its been drained of blood – at 40% blood loss any life would be gone.
They are able to stockpile bio-products as there is currently no accepted “use by date” for products stored at under -160 degrees Celsius.
MBR proudly state that they have a full veterinary suite on site suitable for the euthanasia and terminal bleeds and live donor bleeds.
It is up to a customer to justify the ordering of ‘products’ by filling out a form, thus MBR dispense of any responsibility. On Page 10 there is mention of a retrospective analysis on 5th June 2018, we asked the Home Office to release this report but we were told it was withheld under exemption 41 of FOIA 2000 i.e. it would be a breach of confidence.
Wonder what the blood and body parts are used for? well the NTS says some are to calibrate and validate machines or testing systems.
Additional Information
To view or download the MBR Bleeding Licence Click Here