In 2025, UCL conducted 167,634 animal tests. Only the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the Francis Crick Institute recorded higher numbers in the whole of Great Britain.
The most commonly tested species within UCL were mice (104,157), fish (60,796), and rats (2,179). The other animals UCL recorded tests on in 2025 include rabbits, gerbils, guinea pigs, ferrets, hamsters, pigs, and xenopus frogs.
The University states research involving animals has been used for gene testing, cancer research, social behavioural testing, embryonic development, and heart disease.
Of the tests that the University carried out, 4,564 were classed as ‘non-recovery’.
Moreover, 1,100 tests were classed as ‘severe’ and 32,222 were classed as ‘moderate’.
UCL recorded 77% of their tests in 2025 falling under the categories of ‘sub-threshold’ and ‘mild’. This is comparatively lower than Great Britain's 81% of tests that fell under the same category.
According to Understanding Animal Research, ‘non-recovery’ means an anesthetised animal “is humanely killed before waking up.” ‘Sub-threshold’ meaning “a procedure did not cause suffering above the threshold for regulation”, and ‘mild’ meaning that “pain or suffering experienced was only slight or transitory and minor so that the animal returns to its normal state within a short period of time.”
With all of 2025’s data corroborated, stats show that there has been a 3.79% decrease in animal testing. UCL reduced their testing by 4.58%.
Despite 2025 recording the lowest number of animal testing conducted since the Animals Scientific Procedures Act (ASPA) was installed in 1986, this trend may not continue into 2026.
At the start of this year, MPs voted in favour to ban protests outside animal testing facilities. By reclassifying these labs as “Life Sciences infrastructure” protected by the 2023 Public Order Act, this legislation limits the opportunities for students and animal welfare charities to protest such testing, without the threat of a criminal charge.
Back in March, PETA supporters crashed a senate meeting held at Queen Mary’s University London, protesting the University’s sepsis research which was conducted on mice. Sepsis research has come increasingly under scrutiny through the invasive methods of testing often used. The University of Kent became the first UK university to promise to end sepsis testing on animals in their facilities back in 2025.
A 2024 opinion poll conducted by PETAUK found that 82% of people aged 16-25, “feel that universities should divert money currently spent on animal experiments to other projects”.
Readers are currently able to sign a petition to ban animal testing, calling for organisations to invest more in alternative methods like AI models and human cells.
With pleas from animal welfare charities for the University to end such testing, UCL claims they are committed to the ASPA’s 3Rs of ‘reduction, refinement, and replacement’. The act encourages scientists to look for alternatives to animal testing.
Yet, a House of Lords report suggested that there is a public misinterpretation of the 3Rs - “the term "alternative" suggests the replacement of an animal experiment, not simply a reduction in the number of animals used, or the refinement of an experimental protocol.”
Professor Geraint Rees, UCL Vice-Provost, said:
“Biomedical scientists at UCL use every tool at their disposal to develop life-saving treatments and improve human health. Animals are used in research only when necessary, as our scientists continually develop new ways to replace animals in research, reduce their usage, or refine their methods to mitigate harm, while maintaining the highest standards of high-impact, innovative science.”
This article was featured in CG99.