THOMAS Bromley underestimates the serious human cost of unreliable animal experiments (You Say, May 31).

According to Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible Medicine - an organisation whose stated objective is the immediate and unconditional abolition of all animal experiments, on medical and scientific grounds - "adverse drug reactions account for 5 per cent of all UK hospital admissions, and, in addition, occur in 10-20 per cent of hospital inpatients, resulting in loss of life, or a lessening of the quality of life."

The point is that medical progress has been made despite, and not because of, dangerously flawed animal experiments.

HAZEL HANDY, Malvern.