A vet who worked at the controversial Shamrock Monkey Farm has been given a top post with the RSPCA.

Paul West will take over as assistant chief veterinary officer at the RSPCA's headquarters in Horsham on May 26. Mr West worked as a veterinary clinician at Shamrock Farm in Small Dole, near Henfield, for eight years. He was responsible for the welfare of monkeys kept at the farm before they were sold for animal experiments both in Britain and abroad.

After leaving the farm in 1997 he returned to general veterinary practice. The news of his appointment was greeted with dismay by animals rights campaigners who successfully waged an 18-month campaign against the farm, which announced its closure last month.

Juliet Gellatley, director of Brighton-based Vegetarian International Voice for Animals (VIVA), said: "I am absolutely horrified. Of all the vets the RSPCA could have employed they've chosen somebody who was part and parcel of a system which abused animals for money.

"It beggars belief. This is not the action of an animal welfare society. He was not just a vet to whom people took their animals from time to time. He was employed by Shamrock and took money from a system which supports vivisection."

The RSPCA saw no contradiction between Mr West's appointment and the society's aims, insisting he worked hard to improve the welfare of the monkeys during his time at the farm.

Julie Briggs, spokesman for the RSPCA, said: "We believe the society will benefit from Mr

West's experience and his inside knowledge of the treatment of primates for research.

"He will bring a special knowledge of primate behaviour to the society and that will help us campaign for an improvement in primate welfare until our campaign for alternatives to primates being used in experiments is achieved."

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