Animal Rights Protest Puts £375m Aquatic Centre at Risk

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Animal Rights Protest Puts £375m Aquatic Centre at Risk Groups object to role of drug companies · Backers say Eden-style site will preserve species The Mekong delta will sweep through vast aquatic biospheres along with the river Amazon. Its depths will be home to the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, the largest freshwater fish in the world, and rare poisonous tree frogs will inhabit the treetops of tropical forests. That, at least, is the dream of the team behind a £375m plan to build a visitors' center, huge aquariums for conserving rare, freshwater species and educational facilities on disused Bedfordshire claypits. But now the scheme is in jeopardy after opposition from animal rights groups. The National Institute for Research into Aquatic Habitats (Nirah) is due to open in 2011 and could generate at least 2,000 jobs at Stewartby, near Bedford. The scheme

will be four times as large as the Eden Project in Cornwall and will employ the same designer, Nicholas Grimshaw. It will include research centers for scientific study and commercial exploitation of biotechnology opportunities. The latest architectural drawings reveal undulating translucent roofs covering pools and rivers. Surrounding the complex will be esplanades, lakes, topiary mazes and fountains. The 250-acre site has the potential to attract 2 million visitors a year. Applications for planning permission and up to £50m of funding from the Big Lottery Fund are to be lodged shortly. Up to 20,000 species, including fish, amphibians and reptiles from some of the world's most threatened wetland habitats will eventually be housed in Nirah's rivers, lagoons, reefs and flooded forests. The campaign by animal rights groups, however, has raised objections to the involvement of drug companies, proposed research into fish farming and the removal of fish

from their natural environment. One of the areas research scientists are hoping to develop is the use of natural poisons and venoms for future medical treatments, which may enable cancer drugs, for example, to target tumors more precisely and avoid damaging healthy cells. Those behind the project are aware that comparisons have been made with Huntingdon Life Sciences, the company which uses animals for biotechnology and pharmaceutical research and has been repeatedly attacked. "It is claimed the central purpose of Nirah is conservation," Animal Aid says. "[but] the only true way of helping species at risk is to protect their wild habitats, as opposed to cooping them up in captivity. Not only will Nirah be an aquatic zoo, it will also ... conduct research into ways of farming some of the fish and reptiles for meat in their native countries." Another group, the Captive Animals Protection Society, says: "We believe that zoos, including

aquariums, exist primarily to serve tourists. What education can there be in seeing animals in unnatural conditions, often displaying abnormal behavior? "Nirah have [said] that 15-20% of all species they intend to display will have been wild-caught. This could mean that thousands of individual animals are taken from their natural habitats. Currently huge numbers of animals wild-caught for aquariums do not survive the journey. "The only details made public so far are plans to research toxins and secretions. [We] believe these experiments are invasive ... we are also concerned about what will happen with these venoms and toxins; will they be tested on other animals?" To try to forestall criticism, the project has formulated an animal rights policy. Profesor Chris Shaw, from the School of Pharmacy at Queen's University, Belfast, says Nirah will not conduct invasive animal experiments and will establish an ethics committee. "There are species

becoming extinct each year," he said. "A captive breeding program will stop wild specimens being taken. This will use the best of British innovation in bio-sciences. We will set up an international program so people can come and do their doctorates here. "We are particularly interested in using molecules in snake venoms that function like cruise missiles, homing in on precise targets [in the body]. They could help deliver chemotherapy without surrounding collateral damage. Snake venom also contains valuable coagulants. The Australians are using [the chemicals] to spray on to the bleeding injuries of car crash victims to stop them losing too much blood." Peter May, chairman of the company financing the project, Nirah Holdings, says: "There will be no vivisection and no invasive research. There will be an ethics committee chaired by Peter Scott, a vet employed by the government to grant zoo licences. We are not going to have the problem that Huntington Life

Sciences have had. We will not be dealing with marine mammals." Professor Shaw says Nirah will develop knowledge about captive breeding programs for fish farming. "It would be foolish for us not to look at the potential of species [such as the pacu] which can be fed on clippings off football pitches." The project will also establish a conservation trust to protect endangered species in the wild. The money will partially be raised through car park charges. By Guardian Unlimited © Copyright Guardian Newspapers 2008Published: 3/15/2008 http://pets.Fortheanimals7/join