The Humane Research Trust (HRT) is a British medical
research
Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...
charity
Charity may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...
with the aim of spreading the practice of humane research. They work with scientists as well as students to further the commitment of non-
animal based research.
History
The HRT began life in 1961, after two years of discussions between the
National Anti-Vivisection Society
The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is an international non-profit Animal welfare, animal protection group, based in London, working to end animal testing, and focused on the replacement of animals in research with advanced, scientific t ...
(NAVS), the
Scottish Society for the Prevention of Vivisection (SSPV), and the
British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection
Cruelty Free International is a British animal rights and advocacy group that campaigns for the abolition of all animal testing. It organises certification of cruelty-free products which are marked with the symbol of a leaping bunny.
It was ...
(BUAV), as "The Lawson Tait Memorial Trust". These discussions were chaired by
Wilfred Risdon
Wilfred Risdon (28 January 1896 – 11 March 1967) was a British trade union organizer, a founder member of the British Union of Fascists and an antivivisection campaigner. His life and career encompassed coal mining, trade union work, First Wo ...
, Secretary of the NAVS, who also became Secretary of the new Trust, set up to honour the memory of the Scottish surgeon and anti-vivisectionist, Robert
Lawson Tait
Lawson Tait, born Robert Lawson Tait (1 May 1845 – 13 June 1899) was a Scottish pioneer in pelvic and abdominal surgery who developed new techniques and procedures. He emphasized asepsis and introduced and advocated for surgical techniques tha ...
(1845-1899). The Trust started with capital of £5,000, donated by the three participating Societies, with the intention of awarding “substantial” annual prizes to teams of researchers who published results that would do away with the ‘necessity’ “so often quoted by the apologists in the past as a ‘regrettable necessity’” for the use of living animals in their own line of research. After Risdon's death in 1967, the Trust became the Lawson Tait Medical and Scientific Research Trust. A few years later, “Diehard anti-vivisectionists
howere unable to bring themselves to agree to a Trust that would do business with any scientist involved in any way with animal research …
th the help of the Commissioner of Charity, the Trustees of the Lawson Tait formed the Humane Research Trust in 1974 to give the wider scope that was needed while retaining the original aims. This was very much welcomed by many far-sighted supporters of the Lawson Tait and has encouraged many lay people, not necessarily involved in the anti-vivisection scene, to applaud and support the HRT.”
[Brown, Pamela. ''Animal research: the progressing change in attitude''. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02688867.1990.9726771]
See also
*
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of animals, as model organisms, in experiments that seek answers to scientific and medical questions. This approach can be contrasted ...
References
External links
Official site
Health charities in the United Kingdom
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