IN reply to Andrew Blake (Letters, June 3), I would like to know his definition of 'humane use' of animals in genetic tests.

Is that being caged in clinical conditions, worlds apart from their natural habitat?

Or perhaps being unable to demonstrate the instincts handed down to them through generations, perhaps craving the love and attention that they so rarely receive or enduring the loss of the security that a family unit brings?

No tests on animals can be classed as humane, and while I empathise with Mr Blake's illness and his crusade for a cure, winning a Nobel Prize does not give scientists the right to decide another's fate.

We will all eventually answer to someone higher. Until then, we have a moral obligation and, surely, a duty to ensure no unnecessary pain is inflicted on another species in the name of science.

Let's stop this injustice to animals which, unfortunately, have no say on their potentially grim future.

CHRISTINE LAMBE, Jack's Key Drive, Darwen.

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