ANIMAL rights campaigners called off a planned protest at Bolton Institute after they were offered a meeting to discuss their concerns.

Bolton and District Animal Rights had intended to demonstrate on Monday at the Deane campus - despite repeated denials by officials that animal experiments are carried out there.

But they called off their protest when the institute offered to have a meeting to put the record straight. It is due to take place tomorrowin the psychology department.

The institute has repeatedly denied accusations that it carries out experiments or tests on live animals.

Animal Rights activists began campaigning last year after a medical journal report on the psychology of monkeys which hinted that experiments were carried out at the institute.

The Principal, Professor Bob Oxtoby, stressed that the confusion had arisen over an experiment carried out more than 10 years earlier in Liverpool by Corinne Barrow, who was now a member of the institute staff.

The Animal Rights group has requested that, in addition to tomorrow's meeting, one of its members is given a tour of the institute and that a letter is drafted and signed to ensure the decision is not reversed.

BADAR spokesman Sonia Hillidge said they had been assured that the institute has not and has no plans to carry out any psychological experiments on any living animal.

Sonia said: "We are very pleased that Bolton Institute has offered a meeting with our group and emphatically denies its use of animals.

"However we were not misinformed in calling this demonstration in the first place. We received a scientific journal published in 1996 with a researcher from Bolton Institute cited as the major contributor.

"We are very optimistic about the outcome of our talks."

Prof Oxtoby said the aim of tomorrow's meeting he had offered the group was to clear up an obvious misunderstanding.

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