Gemma Collins and Faye Winter to join Cambridgeshire Camp Beagle protestors outside Parliament

Animals kept at MBR Acres in Huntingdon, where protestors have been demonstrating.
A host of celebrity animal rights campaigners will join Camp Beagle in a peaceful protest outside Parliament. Credit: PA

A host of celebrities, including Gemma Collins, Faye Winter and Kirsty Gallagher, are due to join a peaceful demonstration outside Parliament ahead of a Westminster debate about animal testing.

Protesters from Camp Beagle said breeding facilities, including MBR Acres at Wyton in Cambridgeshire, should not allow the dogs to be used for testing.

It said the rally ams to "educate and raise public awareness about the scientific, financial and moral failures of animal testing."

Demonstrators have lived in tents and vans outside MBR Acres, the breeding facility in Huntingdon owned by biomedical research company Marshall BioResources, since the summer of July 2021.

The rally comes as a Parliamentary debate will discuss a petition calling for the end of animals use for toxicity tests and the prioritising of non-animal methods (NAMs).

"Camp Beagle will be here until MBR Acres is gone," said spokesperson John Curtin.

"This petition to ban toxicology tests would, in itself if successful, spell out the end very quickly for MBR Acres," he added.

Protesters call for hundreds of puppies 'too old' for animal testing to be freed
TV personality Gemma Collins is due to attend the rally. Credit: PA

TV personality Gemma Collins, who made her name on The Only Way is Essex, is due to attend both the rally and the debate.

“My heart breaks for the puppies being bred for sale to toxicity laboratories.

"It’s disgusting, they need to be shut down. It is evil and I will give my very last breath to make sure this happens” she said.

Singer Will Young has in the past protested outside MBR acres in Cambridgeshire Credit: ITV News Anglia

The demonstrations have already attracted the attention of celebrity animal rights campaigners, including comedian Ricky Gervais, and singer Will Young.

The Camp Beagle group claims that although experiments do not take place at MBR Acres, hundreds of beagles are kept there, before being shipped out in crates to be used for drug and chemical testing.

MBR acres in Huntingdon say its work is vital for research. Credit: ITV News Anglia

But MBR Acres said the work it carried out was crucial.

"Our business is critical to the continuation of medical and veterinary research in the UK and the UK government have stressed over the past few months the importance of regulatory safety testing before new medicines and treatments are given to human and companion animal volunteers in clinical trials," said a spokesman.

Those involved in the testing industry say it is strictly regulated and as humane as possible.

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