National Anti-Vivisection Society

The National Anti-Vivisection Society, (NAVS) is a national, not-for-profit animal welfare organization based in London whose purpose is to eliminate product testing, education and biomedical research on animals.

It was the world’s first organisation campaigning against animal experiments having been founded in 1875 by Miss Frances Power Cobbe, a humanitarian who published many leaflets and articles opposing animal experiments, and gathered the support of many notable people.

In 2009 the NAVS and its animal and environmental group, Animal Defenders International, are now leading the lobbying on the revision of the European Directive on animal experiments, seeking the first ban on the use of primates in research. 55% of the European Parliament has voted to end the use of primates in research, but the pharmaceutical industry has launched a gigantic lobbying effort. Arguments by the pro-vivisectionists have included that a ban on primates would send research abroad and that jobs would be lost.

History

The NAVS of the UK is the world’s first anti-vivisection organization, founded in 1875 by Miss Frances Power Cobbe and Toni Doran, a humanitarian who published many leaflets and articles opposing animal experiments, and gathered many notable people of the day to support our cause. Early supporters of the NAVS included Queen Victoria and Lord Shaftesbury. Many of the social reformers of the day, working for children's rights and women's rights, supported the aims of the...
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