Cats, dogs and horses are among the millions of animals still used in animal testing in the UK

Labour’s election manifesto pledged to phase out testing on animals but groups say action needs to to be taken swiftly to end the suffering

(Image: Getty Images)

Nearly 2.7 million procedures on animals including cats, dogs, horses, primates and guinea pigs were carried out in the UK last year, new government figures have revealed.

The majority of experimental procedures (71%) carried out used mice (around 1.9 million), fish (around 368,000) and rats (around 148,189).

Other animals that were used included guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, birds, goats, sheep and pigs.

Cats, dogs, horses and monkeys are classed as "specially protected species" - which means laboratories wanting to use them must show that no other species are suitable before they're given the go-ahead.

The figures show 63 cats, 3,770 dogs, 11,409 horses and 2,168 monkeys were used in experimental procedures.

Nearly half of all primates used in experiments were born to wild-caught parents and 99% of the crab-eating macaques, a seriously threatened species, used in British laboratories in 2023, were imported from Africa and Asia.