Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 experiments licensed under the 1986 Act. The 1986 Act defined "regulated procedures" as animal experiments that could potentially cause "pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm", to "protected animals", which encompassed all living vertebrates other than humans, under the responsibility of humans. A 1993 amendment added a single invertebrate species, the common octopus ("Octopus vulgaris"), as a protected animal. The Act applied only to protected animals from halfway through their gestation or incubation periods (for mammals, birds and reptiles) or from when they became capable of independent feeding (for fish, amphibians and, the common octopuses). Primates, cats, dogs and horses had
Eurogroup for Animals Eurogroup for Animals Eurogroup for Animals is an organisation based in Brussels, Belgium, which seeks to improve the treatment of animals throughout the European Union, and represents animal welfare organisations in almost all the European member states. Since it was launched in 1980, the organisation has succeeded in encouraging the European Union to adopt higher legal standards of animal protection. It provides advice and expertise on animal welfare to various European institutions, such as the European Commission, the Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament. It also provides the secretariat of the European Parliamentary Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation