IT took hundreds of years for people to accept the world was round because they had been brought up to believe it was flat.

The same is true with animal experiments. The public has been fed a sugar-coated version of how the fantastic developments in medicine we enjoy today were actually achieved.

AG Reeson's letter uses the same old argument which we are all brought up to believe - animal experiments are absolutely essential if we are to have effective drugs, yet it was known as far back as in the 17th century, the days of Galileo (one of the first men to partake in vivisection), that experimenting on animals contributed nothing to understanding the workings and problems of the human body.

Vivisection continues to exist because it is a multibillion-pound industry and careers are built on it. It is true most drugs will have been tested on animals, but this isn't why they work. Animal experiments serve only to fast-track drugs on to the market and protect the pharmaceutical companies against litigation should they go on to harm someone.

The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) was set up more than 125 years ago to campaign for an end to this pseudo-science and for a move towards more relevant research methods.

You can find out more about its work and also its Lord Dowing fund for humane research at www.navs.org.uk

Darren Shaw,

Gordon Street,

York.

Updated: 11:50 Friday, May 19, 2006