Medical research "at risk due to animal rights activists" It is understood the Channel Tunnel had already refused to carry the animals, along with all UK-based airlines. This has left just a handful of foreign airlines to handle the small animals, which are used for a variety of experimental research projects in this country. Writing in the Times newspaper, former science minister Lord Drayson warned: "By giving in to the protestors they are inadvertently choking off vital research into some of the most debilitating diseases affecting our society." A spokesman for P&O ferries told the newspaper it had stopped transporting animals last year, following letter and social media campaigns targeted at directors. "We have come under enormous pressure from the anti-vivisection brigade over the last year and came to the decision we will carry no animals for research purposes," he added. Lord Willis, chairman of the Association of Medical Research Charities, told the newspaper he could understand the decision for companies to withdraw their services on commercial but not moral grounds. He said: "Patients, politicians and the public need to discuss whether we are going to accept a situation where the search for effective treatments is hampered because of the objections of a minority."