Poll shows loss on testing

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

LONDON–“The proportion of people approving of animal testing
in medical research is at an all-time high. More than three quarters
believe that the more extreme elements among animal rights activists
deserve to be called terrorists,” wrote Anthony King of The Daily
Telegraph on May 29, 2006.
Agreed Daily Telegraph home affairs editor Philip Johnston,
“Campaigns such as intimidating scientists and threatening
shareholders in pharmaceutical companies appear to have backfired
badly.”
King and Johnston based their analysis on a May 2006 YouGov
poll of 2,102 British adults, sponsored by The Daily Telegraph.

“With one exception,” King wrote, “opinion on the issue
differs scarcely at all from one social group to another. People in
all age groups and all parts of the country, and supporters of all
political parties, are united in believing that testing new medical
treatments on live animals is morally acceptable. The exception is
that among women, 59% favour animal testing, but among men the
corresponding proportion is far higher: 82%. Conversely,” King
continued, “where 25% of women are opposed to animal testing under
any circumstances, the figure among men is a modest 10%.”
Added King, “72% are also persuaded that the big
pharmaceutical companies mean what they say when they threaten to
transfer medical research to other countries, if the research
environment in Britain becomes, from their point of view, unduly
repressive. A mere 14% think that the companies are bluffing and
simply want to conduct research on animals free of effective
restrictions.”
The poll was taken shortly after Prime Minister Tony Blair on
May 14, 2006 endorsed animal testing in a guest essay for The Daily
Telegraph, and blasted activists who had issued anonymous threats to
about 50 shareholders in GlaxoSmithKline Inc.