Thursday the 24th April was World Day for Animals in Laboratories, but don't worry – you haven't missed it all yet. There's a whole week of action for lab animals, with a march in Nottingham on Saturday 26th.

The main campaign this year is about the use and transport of primates in vivisection. Air France is the only passenger airline still transporting primates for vivisection, so boycotting them is suggested. (There's good environmental reasons to boycott all airlines of course). National Anti Vivisection Society are encouraging people to use social media to tell Air France why they won't be flying with them. Various celebrities have been supporting the boycott, and at least they might have enough money to fly Air France if they wanted to!

Primates are used in UK labs for drug testing and neurology research. As if the experiments weren't bad enough, the monkeys suffer terrible stress before they even reach the labs. They are caught in the wild to breed in intensive farms, without proper care and then the babies are taken from their mothers to be flown here in tiny boxes in unsuitable conditions. Many die on the journey.

There are many modern alternatives to animal testing, which give more reliable results. If you watch any primate, it is pretty obvious they suffer much like humans when stressed, and the treatment in laboratories is more like torture.

The March for Lab Animals in Nottingham starts from Old Market Square at 12 noon. See www.navs.org.uk for more.