Tipu Aziz

Aziz has been vocal in support of animal testing and his criticism of the animal liberation movement, calling them "misinformed and sometimes illiterate anti-vivisectionists who adopt terrorist tactics" and who "[undermine] the process of democracy" through "intimidation". Britain has "probably the most violent and absurd animal rights movement in the world." He told The Guardian, "The problem with British society is it has a humanoid perception of animals that’s almost cartoon-like."

Other scientists who use animals in research have "distanced themselves" from Aziz's remarks. Clive Page, a researcher at the University of London, said: "I don't think we can justify using animals for cosmetics research. [Prof Aziz], like myself and a few others who talk out about this have worked very hard to try and explain to the public why we do medical research on animals and why it's still necessary. To muddy the waters by bringing back an issue of using animals for something that’s not actually approved in the UK is perhaps unfortunate."

In January 2013, Aziz was nominated for the Service to Medicine award at the British Muslim Awards.

In February 2006, Aziz came to public prominence in the UK when he spoke out in favour of the use of animals in medical research to several hundred demonstrators during a rally held by Pro-Test, a new British group set up to promote the construction by Oxford University of a new biomedical centre in which research on animals, including primates, will be conducted. Aziz is one of two Oxford neurosurgeons who sit on the Pro-Test committee. Pro-Test was formed to counter SPEAK, an animal rights organisation aiming to end vivisection in the UK.

In March 2006, he came to public attention again when he defended the use of animals in cosmetics testing, which is banned in Britain. His comments were described as "perhaps unfortunate" by one colleague.

The Guardian writes that some patients have described the surgery as "miraculous". In a 2006 BBC Two documentary Monkeys, Rats and Me: Animal Testing, animal rights philosopher Peter Singer described Aziz's research as "justifiable" on utilitarian grounds. Singer later clarified his statement saying that it would only be justified, in his opinion, if Aziz were willing to do the same experiments on humans of a similar mental capacity.

An animal rights campaign has formed around a seven-year-old macaque monkey that Aziz has used in his research. Named Felix by Aziz himself, he is one of 100 purpose-bred monkeys used in animal experiments by Oxford University. Felix was featured in a November 2006 BBC documentary about Aziz's work, "Monkeys, Rats and Me". The monkey was shown being "shaped", that is, being encouraged to perform certain tasks by having food and water withheld, in advance of having the symptoms of Parkinson's disease induced. Electrodes were implanted in his brain to test the effects of deep brain stimulation on the Parkinsonian symptoms and on his ability to perform the tasks. He will be destroyed at the end of the experiment, which could continue for several years.

In an interview published on 4 March 2005, Aziz condoned testing cosmetics on animals, a practice banned in the UK since 1998 and fully across the European Union by 2013. He said that to argue cosmetics testing is wrong is "a very strange argument", and that "[p]eople talk about cosmetics being the ultimate evil. But beautifying oneself has been going on since we were cavemen. If it's proven to reduce suffering through animal tests, it’s not wrong to use them. To say cosmetics is an absolute evil is absurd."

Since the BBC documentary aired, SPEAK, a British animal rights campaign formed in 2002, has used the "Fight for Felix" as a public focus of their efforts to halt the construction of a new £20 million animal-testing facility in South Park Road, Oxford

Tipu Zahed Aziz, FMedSci (Bengali: টিপু আজিজ জাহেদ ; born 9 November 1956) is a Bangladeshi-born British professor of neurosurgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Aarhus Denmark and Porto, Portugal. He specialises in the study and treatment of Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, dystonia, spasmodic torticollis, fixed abnormal posture of the neck, tremor, and intractable neuropathic pain. Besides his medical work, he is also notable as a public commentator in support of animal experimentation.