Uncaged is a peaceful international animal protection organisation based in Sheffield, England, formed in 1993. We are a dynamic and efficient organisation that operates at every level, from grassroots protests to motions in Parliament to participation in academic discourse.

We inform the public and empower them to make a difference in their personal lives as well as giving them the opportunity to participate in protests and lobby policy-makers whose decisions affect the lives of millions of animals. We have contributed to numerous Government consultation exercises on animal experimentation matters and given evidence to a recent House of Lords enquiry. Our analysis has appeared in journals and been quoted by researchers. Uncaged has established an international reputation as a respected contributor to the debate on animal experimentation. Examples of our successes include:

• Uncaged achieved a historic legal victory over a multi-national drug company which allowed us to publish leaked documents describing illegal animal experiments. Never before has such valuable information reached the public domain. The company involved shut down within a week of our exposé.

• We managed to project the words ‘Procter & Gamble Test on Animals’ on to the iconic Angel of the North sculpture in a stunning publicity coup. The stunt was covered extensively by regional media and seen for miles around, revealing the terrible truth about Procter & Gamble to hundreds of thousands of people.

• Procter & Gamble’s pet food brand Iams stopped slaughtering cats and dogs in pet food research after we exposed their cruel experiments in the national press.

• When pig organ transplant research resumed in Britain, we lobbied parliament for a review of the permits for these experiments on the grounds that they were cruel, pointless and repetitive. Subsequently, the research abruptly stopped in 2007.

• A massive and complex campaign by Uncaged put animal protection onto the 2005 General Election agenda, and we continue to give a massive boost to animal protection initiatives in Parliament.

We have in-depth knowledge of the political, legal, ethical and scientific issues relevant to animal experimentation. Our campaigns are based on painstaking research and expert consultation, producing results that command widespread respect from media, politicians and the public alike. Our head of campaigns, Dr Dan Lyons, has recently been awarded the Political Studies Association's (PSA) award for the best thesis of 2007 on Government and Public Administration. The PSA is the learned society for political science in the UK. The unique expertise acknowledged by this award firmly establishes Uncaged as a leading voice for animals and the vast majority of the public who are concerned about their wellbeing.

We currently have approximately 9,000 supporters, and over a million people have signed our petition against animal testing.

We are entirely dependent on sympathetic members of the public who share our compassion for animals and appreciate our unique campaign methods. We are both radical and pragmatic, persistent and innovative, passionate and rational, inspirational and informative.

No, we are a peaceful organisation and make our case through democratic methods only. We wholeheartedly condemn the use of violence in any shape or form. We believe that to achieve positive long-lasting changes we have to educate and persuade people. Using violence and intimidation to protect animals is counter-productive and unethical.