New campaign alert: The Forgotten Lives in Britain’s animal laboratories

24th April 2025

24/04/25

Back in 2017, the UK Government gave us the full picture about how many animals were used in British science – an eye-opening 5.53 million individuals. This included 1.81 million animals who were bred for research and not used in experiments.

But since then? Silence.

The UK Government has chosen not to publish this “additional data” about animals who are bred and not used in experiments. Meanwhile, countries in the EU are sharing these numbers every five years, and some, like Germany, do it every year. It means that right now, potentially hundreds of thousands of animals in British laboratories are completely invisible. These are the Forgotten Lives.

Take action for the Forgotten Lives

Invisible animals

In 2017, we learned that many different species were being bred but not used in Britain including:

• 97 Dogs
• 143 Primates
• 5,927 Rabbits
• 1,648 Ferrets
• 3,557 Guinea pigs
• 199,493 Rats
• 1,455,366 Mice

…and many more.

Why weren’t they used? Sometimes they were the wrong sex, bred just in case they were needed or used for tissue collection instead of experiments. Some even died before being used.

What’s the situation now?

In the EU, 2022 figures show over 9 million animals were used in research – but just as many were bred and not used. That’s over 18 million animals used for science overall in the EU.

In the UK, we know 2.7 million animals were used for scientific procedures in 2022. But how many more were bred and not used? We just don’t know — because the Home Office stopped counting them.

Take action for the Forgotten Lives

Why transparency matters

When the EU started reporting these numbers, it helped shine a light on exactly how many animals are affected by scientific research.

If we don’t know the full scale of animal use, how can we work towards reducing and ultimately replacing animal testing with alternatives like Non-Animal Methods (NAMs)? Greater transparency is urgently needed.

Launching our new campaign on World Day for Animals in Laboratories

Today, Naturewatch Foundation is shining a light on the Forgotten Lives – those animals who don’t make it into the stats, despite being part of the system.

You can make a difference

The Government says it wants to work with stakeholders to work towards a phase out of animal testing. But how can we achieve that without knowing how many animals are used in science overall?

This World Day for Animals in Laboratories, please take a moment to email your MP. Ask them to support full reporting of all animals used in science in Britain.

Take action for the Forgotten Lives

Learn more about our new campaign on our Naturewatch Foundation website here.

Image credit: Roger Kindbird & We Animals Media