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
World Day for Laboratory Animals groups opposed to the use of animals in research. In April 2010 protesters marched through central London calling for an end to the use of animals in research. A similar march took place in Birmingham in 2012. and Nottingham in 2014. World Day and World Week For Animals In Laboratories have also attracted attention from scientific groups defending the use of animals in research. On 22 April 2009 members of UCLA Pro-Test held a rally in support of biomedical research on animals, and to condemn the violence and harassment directed at faculty member Prof. David Jentsch by animal activists. NAVS