Actor and comedian Ricky Gervais has a long resume in his acting career. He’s been in many cleverly written film stories.

But now, the acclaimed entertainer is setting his sights on the real world.

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Gervais has recently gone on a forward charge against animal testing in the U.K. A considerable number of cosmetic companies still rely on animal testing, on dogs in particular, for their products.

He’s taken to lobbying towards the UK government and their Animal Welfare act.

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The little nudge that Gervais needed to speak up was a protest at MBR Acres. Over 2,000 dogs at MBR Acres in Cambridgeshire, a “factory farm”, are bred yearly for testing.

If the thought of bringing an animal into the world solely to use it as a test subject irks you, then you’re not alone.

Gervais launched a campaign himself against animal testing in the UK.

Cambridgeshire itself breeds Beagles in particular, which are sent off for testing as young as 16 weeks old.

Unfortunately, the grim and unpleasant acts don’t end there.

The facility in Huntingdon was the subject of long-term observation from activists.

What they mentioned seeing was just distasteful and horrible, in every sense of both words. Workers would grab the dogs by the scruffs of the necks and put them in a cramped, crowded truck.

They reported hearing the dogs whimpering and crying from inside the vehicle (a “trolley” since this is the UK).

In learning this, Gervais expressed his disgust and disapproval. Even as a comedian, some things are too dark to laugh about. He and fellow actor Peter Egan have started a petition and campaign to include animal testing in the UK’s Animal Welfare act.

“I’m deeply shocked to learn that thousands of beautiful beagles are intensively bred, right here in the peace of the British countryside, for painful and terrifying toxicity experiments that are also now proven to entirely fail the search for human treatments and cures.” – Gervais said

On the opposing side, a spokesperson for MBR Acres has denied the claims of animal mistreatment by staff.

Their business practices are, according to them, done with the animals’ comfort and care as their priority.

“It does not undertake regulatory toxicology or other experiments and has only animal care staff working on its sites.”

Furthermore, she stated that a more nuanced stance on the matter is needed.

According to her, a wider survey of expert opinions with some consideration for the applications of their animal tests would be crucial to the discourse at hand. Gervais hasn’t just criticized the MBR Acres facility, either.

He also called out animal testing done on rabbits for cosmetic brands.

Of course, it remains to be seen if this is all being said and done in good faith, or if this is another case of a company doing PR work to absolve itself of accountability.

In this case, I’m sure Gervais and the rest of us would actually like to be wrong for once.

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If it means no dogs are being hoarded into trucks and having pesticides and needles shoved into them, then I suppose that’s a good thing.

At the end of it all, we just want to make sure no living thing has to suffer for anyone. Clearly.

Although one spokesperson from Understanding Animal Research appeared to not deny the (putting things lightly) questionable methods employed by places like MBR Acres.

They stated that proposed drugs are indeed tested on the dogs. A small, non-lethal dose is added to their food for a period of time.

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If the dogs die by the end of it, their organs are scrutinized and inspected for the pathologies.

It seems that even if activists may not be seeing the whole picture like some animal testing companies are claiming, they might not necessarily be too far from the mark either. Gervais argued, and brought up a statistic, stating that most of the animal test models fail to properly predict efficacy in humans anyway.

Given that, I really hope Gervais’ campaign gains more traction. Give this article a share, and let the voices of people like Gervais gain more traction!

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Source: Independent.Co UK, Petition Parliament UK