ANIMAL rights campaigners from Speak marked 10 years of protesting outside Oxford University’s animal testing labs on Thursday.

The activists, who say methods used for the testing are cruel, have gathered at the South Parks Road site every week since 2004.

A group of university students from the Indian Vegetarian society presented members with an award to mark the occasion.

Mike Haines has been to almost every protest since they began.

He said: “We will do this for as long as it takes. I have been arrested multiple times, but they have never stopped me because we do it quite legally.”

An Oxford University spokesman said: “Without animal research, medicine as we know it today wouldn’t exist.

“It has enabled us to find treatments for cancer, antibiotics for infections (which were developed in Oxford laboratories), vaccines to prevent some of the most deadly and debilitating viruses, and surgery for injuries, illnesses and deformities.

“The university is committed to very high standards of animal welfare using the latest research methods.

“Almost all the animals used in Oxford research are mice.”