Gill Langley

Gill Langley
Gill Langley
Born	10 August 1952 (age 71)
Nationality	British
Education	MA (physiology, cell biology, and zoology), PhD (neurochemistry)
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Occupation	Animal rights scientist & writer
Known for	Alternatives to animal testing, animal rights

Gillian Rose Langley (born 10 August 1952)

anti-vivisection member of the British government's Animal Procedures Committee for eight years, and has worked as a consultant on non-animal techniques for the European Commission, and for animal protection organizations in Europe and the United States.^[3] Between 2010 and 2016 she was a consultant for Humane Society International

.

Langley is the author of Vegan Nutrition (1988), and editor of Animal Experimentation: The Consensus Changes (1990). She has written a number of reports for the

British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, including Faith, Hope & Charity? An Enquiry into Charity-Funded Research (1988), and Next of Kin (2006), an examination of primate

experimentation. She has also published articles and reviews in scientific journals about human species-specific research approaches.

Education

Langley obtained an

PhD in neurochemistry, also from Cambridge. She took up a position as a research fellow at the University of Nottingham, specialising in neurochemistry using human cell cultures

.

Involvement in animal protection

Langley was trained as an animal researcher but after reading

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).^[5] She was called as an expert witness in 2001 by the House of Lords Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures during its inquiry into animal experimentation in the UK.^[6]

In April 2006, she was a member of the panel at the

Robert Winston.^[7] Supporting the motion, along with Langley, were Dr Andrew Knight, Uri Geller and BUAV campaigns director Alistair Currie.^[8]

The motion was defeated by 273 to 48.

Position on animal research

Langley is an anti-vivisectionist and

vegan. She told The Guardian that she "would never claim that all animal experiments are without scientific value. "^[9] She argues that the ethical case against animal research is absolute and that medical progress will benefit from 21st-century, human-relevant tools being used in place of animal experiments. This transition urgently requires funding and policy changes. She told the BBC: "When you know that other animals can feel pain and distress in the same ways that humans do, it is unethical to experiment on them."^[10]

She has campaigned against the use of non-human primates in

immunosuppressant drugs; kidney or heart failure, and eventually death. She said:

"It's not just the suffering they endure in the laboratories and research establishments. Just getting there can be torture. Studies of primates show them to have complex mental abilities which may increase their capacity to suffer. Supplying the laboratories in the UK imposes huge suffering on the animals... They're then contained in small, single cages, and transported for very long distances causing deaths, distress and suffering."^[4]

Next of Kin

Langley's report against primate experimentation, Next of Kin (2006),

great apes, who are currently not used in experiments in the UK.^[11] David Morton, professor of Biomedical Science & Ethics at the University of Birmingham, said the report was "a wake-up call to scientists to raise their game in their justification and ways they use non-human primates in research."^[12]

Publications

Next of Kin: A Report on the Use of Primates in Experiments, British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE), 2006.
Vegan Nutrition. The Vegan Society, 1988.
ISBN 0-907337-18-X

Animal Experimentation: The Consensus Changes. MacMillan, 1989.
ISBN 0-412-02411-X

"Plea for a Sensitive Science" in Animal Experimentation: The Consensus Changes. MacMillan, 1989

Acute Toxicity Testing Without Animals, ECEAE, 2005.
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals – A Non-animal Testing Approach, Green Party, 2004.
"Chemical Safety & Animal Testing: A Regulatory Smokescreen?", ECEAE, 2004.
The Way Forward: Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy, (Part 1), Part 2, ECEAE, 2004.
Towards a 21st-century roadmap for biomedical research and drug discovery: consensus report and recommendations, Drug Discovery Today, (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2016.10.011

Notes

^ "Weekend birthdays". The Guardian. 9 August 2014. p. 45.
^ "Gill Langley: Profile", The Guardian, accessed 9 June 2010.
^ Levinson, Ralph and Reiss, Michael J. (eds) Key Issues in Bioethics: A Guide for Teachers. RoutledgeFalmer, p. 175.
^ ^a ^b Bryan, Jenny & Clare, John. Organ Farms. Carlton, 2001. excerpt
^ ^a ^b Langley, Gill. "Next of Kin: A Report on the Use of Primates in Experiments", British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, June 2006, accessed 9 June 2010.
^ "Examination of Witnesses (Questions 382–399)", Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures, United Kingdom Parliament, retrieved 15 July 2006.
^ Asthana, Anushka. "Pro-Test in support of animal experiments", The Observer, 30 April 2006.
^ Alistair Currie's speech to the Oxford Union Archived 16 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine, BUAV, retrieved 15 July 2006.
^ Burch, Druin. "The sceptic", The Guardian, 2 March 2006.
^ "Reduce animal testing, Lords urge", BBC News, 24 July 2002.
^ Coghlan, Andy. "Report claims experiments on monkeys are vital", New Scientist, 2 June 2006. Also see "Primates in Medical Research", Medical Research Council.
^ "MP to chair BUAV / Pro-Test debate on primate testing" Archived 7 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine, 31 May 2006.