Research Defence Society

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The Research Defence Society was a British lobby group. At the end of 2008 the Research Defence Society merged with another UK organisation - the Coalition for Medical Progress to form Understanding Animal Research.

The Research Defence Society's aim was to disseminate information about, and to defend the use of, animal testing in medicine. It represented the interests of 5,000 researchers and institutions. It was reportedly funded by the pharmaceutical industry and universities. The organization states it is funded by its members, which includes medical scientists, doctors and veterinarians, as well as pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, universities and charities that support medical research. The Times writes that the RDS is "funded by the pharmaceutical industry and universities".

Its last executive director was Dr. Simon Festing who has gone on to be the CEO of Understanding Animal Research .

One campaign to demonstrate the support for animal research within the scientific and medical community, was the co-signing of a petition in support of the use of animals in research called Declaration on Animals in Medical Research. The original declaration occurred in 1990, its second variant in 2005. Over 500 British, and 200 non-British, scientists signed the declaration in the first month, including 3 Nobel laureates, 190 Fellows of the Royal Society and the Medical Royal Colleges and over 250 academic Professors.

References

• Understanding Animal Research website (the RDS site no longer exists) [1]
• Woods, Richard & Ungoed-Thomas, Jonathan. "A campaigning hero", Sunday Times, February 26, 2006