Humberside Airport: Animal rights protest over 'beagle flights'

MBR Beagles said it existed as UK governments "demand potential medicines are tested in animals before being given to humans and animals"

Animal rights campaigners have demonstrated over dogs they say are flown from Humberside Airport for use in animal testing.

Hull Animal Rights Team said beagles are bred at MBR in Cambridgeshire and sent to Ireland to be used in testing.

A protest spokesperson said: "As a nation of animal lovers, we cannot continue to let this happen."

MBR Beagles said: "Animals are needed in a small percentage of medical research."

Protesters set up a camp in 2020 at the breeding facility for medical research at MBR Acres in Wyton, Cambridgeshire.

Singer Will Young handcuffed himself to the front gates in November.

MBR, whose full name is Marshall Bioresources, said: "The UK has the most demanding regulations in the world - placing greater requirements on those who propose using animals in medical research than any other territory and demanding the highest welfare standards."

"Overwhelming scientific opinion" was that results from dog testing when added to work in other species gave "data that best predict human responses to drugs", it added.

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More than 30 protesters congregated outside Humberside Airport

Campaigners previously filmed footage they said showed dogs being put onto an aircraft at the airport, near Kirmington in Northern Lincolnshire.

Robert Gordon, spokesperson for the airport protest said: "Thousands of Beagle puppies are bred at MBR Acres each year to be used in painful animal testing. Their short lives will be filled with unimaginable suffering."

An Humberside Airport spokesman said: "While we respect the rights of people and organisations to carry out protests, we ask that they do so peacefully, respecting the safety of passengers and employees while onsite at Humberside."