BUAV - British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection - took the British Government to court over cruel animal experiments, and have won a partial victory at least. I recently heard about monkeys still being scalped in the 'civilized' UK.
More at Yahoo! News here:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20070727/tuk-animal-experiment-ruling-unlawful-6323e80.html
More at Yahoo! News here:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20070727/tuk-animal-experiment-ruling-unlawful-6323e80.html