Oh, yes, Porton Down.....Anyone in the UK (or British) knows about it. Most people are shocked when they read about the horrific nature of the experiments done, and public opinion is against it. The trouble is, successive governments have defended its continuance based on "security defence" nonsense such as "it protects our troops".
The biggest problem of all is that the Ministry of Defence has exemption from animal experimentation rules. Basically, if it is for military research, the experimenters are free to administer poisonous gases, introduce extreme disease (such as anthrax in the past), burn, shoot, maim, cut apart without anaesthetic, crush bones, torture in any way they please - all without any risk of prosecution. We should also be clear that such research, vile as it is, is also carried out with the objective of finding new biological weapons to use against "aggressors". That is how the biological weapons race started in the first place, with Porton Down researching into mustard gas use on troops.
It is an outrage. I would love to say that other countries do not do the same, but sadly that is not the case. Thank you so much for publicising this horrendous research establishment, Catherine.
The biggest problem of all is that the Ministry of Defence has exemption from animal experimentation rules. Basically, if it is for military research, the experimenters are free to administer poisonous gases, introduce extreme disease (such as anthrax in the past), burn, shoot, maim, cut apart without anaesthetic, crush bones, torture in any way they please - all without any risk of prosecution. We should also be clear that such research, vile as it is, is also carried out with the objective of finding new biological weapons to use against "aggressors". That is how the biological weapons race started in the first place, with Porton Down researching into mustard gas use on troops.
It is an outrage. I would love to say that other countries do not do the same, but sadly that is not the case. Thank you so much for publicising this horrendous research establishment, Catherine.
