TWO leading Oxford University academics have spoken publicly for the first time in favour of the building of a controversial new £18 million research laboratory in the city.

Tipu Aziz and John Stein have defied threats from animal rights extremists in speaking up for the project that they say is vital for their work.

Professor Aziz, a consultant neurosurgeon whose work involves the use of primates, said that they both believed that it was time to stand up to the radicals who have attempted to stop the project.

He said: “I think that it is important to speak out. The ALF [Animal Liberation Front] are saying that anyone in Oxford is a target. They have had it all their own way for a long time.

“What we are seeing in Britain today is a minority dictating how the majority live and that is as undemocratic a process as can be imagined.

“Animal research is absolutley essential to medical progress and a lot of research being done in Oxford is critical.”

He and Professor Stein, a neurophysiologist, will address a march on Saturday, the first demonstration supporting the construction of the laboratory.

Professor Stein, who runs the laboratory where the research into Parkinson’s and dyslexia is carried out, said that he knew there were dangers involved in speaking at the march.

“You have to be really passionate about this to put your head above the parapet. Some of these people are loonies and do the most awful things. Let’s be clear, we are all taking a risk, but I feel it is so important I am prepared to take that risk,” he told The Guardian.

“The anti-vivs have had it all their own way. They have intimidated people, but the time has come to speak up and risk it. Who knows what the risk is? “I feel passionately that animal experiments have benefitted mankind enormously and almost all of the medical advances of the last 100 years have happened through animal experiments. People just don’t seem to know this. It hasn’t been got across.”

The movement in defence of animal research at Oxford is growing amid increasing tension. In recent weeks members of the ALF have been encouraging and directing a violent campaign against university funders, students and researchers through postings on a website based in Florida. Work was started on the research laboratory in November after a year’s delay.

Montpellier, the original contractor, pulled out and the identity of the new builder remains secret. Workers at the site wear balaclavas and drive unmarked vehicles.

Under an injunction obtained by Oxford University, demonstrations against the laboratory are allowed to take place each Thursday within a cordon opposite the building.

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