11 years ago
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29th January, 2013 11h06
The National Anti-Vivisection Society has expressed its outrage at the news that the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) has carried out its planned mission to send a monkey into space.
Full details of the mission have yet to be confirmed, but press reports have stated that the monkey – photos of which show the primate heavily restrained and clearly traumatized – “returned safely” following the launch. An ISA executive, Hamid Fazeli, stated the primate program would “aid our agency in launching a man into space”.
NAVS Chief Executive Jan Creamer: “The use of animals in space research is pointless and any data gathered is inferior to the data collected during manned space missions. That Iran would undertake such a pointlessly cruel and unnecessary mission is beyond belief. The poor animal was clearly terrified throughout its ordeal”.
Last week the NAVS stated that the mission, which was originally due to take place at the beginning of February, was a retrograde step in space research. It stated that the ISA was at odds with the European Space Agency (ESA) which has distanced itself from the use of primates. In 2010, NASA also abandoned plans to carry out radiation experiments on squirrel monkeys in 2011.
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