Animal Testing Lab Which Infamously Tortured Monkeys and Dogs May Now Reopen
Shocking undercover footage, showing monkeys screaming in pain and dogs laying in blood-stained cages, helped close the lab down in February. Now, a court has ruled that it’s allowed to reopen.
Credit: Cruelty Free International and Soko Tierschutz/CEN
Late last year, undercover activists released incredibly graphic and upsetting footage that showed monkeys screaming in pain and dogs laying in blood-stained cages, as part of horrific, unethical tests at the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology (LPT) in Mienenbuttel, Germany.
The visuals shocked the world, and a petition calling for the lab to be immediately shut down received over 1 million signatures in support.
It worked: the lab was ordered to close down back in February, with Cruelty Free International reporting that 49 cats and 80 dogs were saved from the facility and adopted into forever homes.
But now, a legal ruling is set to allow the lab to reopen, in a shocking move that has been widely condemned by campaigners and supporters.
The court has ruled that the reopening is subject to certain simple conditions being met, such as hiring a new managing director, a new animal welfare officer and new animal research supervisors.
German animal rights organisation Soko Tierschutz is among those outraged at the change in decision.
Spokesman Friedrich Mülln told national newspaper Tag24 that “it is a scandal that Hamburg is apparently being appeased by cheap personnel damage from the LPT and not even waiting for the criminal proceedings, in particular, because of allegedly falsified animal research studies for over a decade."
In addition to the shocking cruelty that many animals were subjected to at the lab, whistle blower employees also revealed that they were asked to lie about findings and falsify results.
One former employee explained, "I didn't just experience this, I also had to do this, I had to falsify documents. When the studies did not show the results we expected, I was told I had to make them more favourable."
Another former employee added that "tests were carried out with potential dangerous substances, particularly bad for the environment. In one study with rats, which resulted in many horrific deaths, the results were falsified. A lower dosage then brought the desired results."
Animal testing remains an urgent problem worldwide. In the US, the government spends more than $15 billion on cruel tests each year, with more than 25 million dogs, cats, monkeys, horses, guinea pigs, and other animals used in experiments nationwide.
Under the US Animal Welfare Act - the law that governs the use of animals in laboratories - animals can be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, forcibly restrained, addicted to drugs, and brain-damaged. For 95 percent of the animals used in laboratories, painkillers are not required, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
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The footage was reportedly recorded at Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York, where up to 22,000 dogs - mostly beagles - are being bred for animal experimentation.