An animal facility at the University of Milan, Italy, was occupied on Saturday 20 April by Fermare Green Hill. Animals were taken and cage labels mixed up to confuse experimental protocols. Researchers said it would take three years to redo the research into psychiatric disorders, including autism and schizophrenia, destroyed by the intruders.
This is the latest in a series of disturbing events in Italy where animal research is under pressure from animal rights groups.
Now scientists and others are organsing themselves to put the case for their research to the public and to the media. Sixty members of Pro-test Italia held a demonstration in Milan on the Sunday after the laboratory break-in.
Over the past month and a half Pro-Test Italia has gathered more than 2,000 followers on its FaceBook page, and a website is under development at http://protestitalia.wordpress.com/.
In their public debut, Pro-Test Italia members attended a meeting at the Italian Senate on 20 November as observers to a debate about the need for animal testing in the development of new medicines.
Read more about Pro-test Italia here: https://www.facebook.com/ProTestItalia
Read more about the Milan break-in in Nature.
Last edited: 29 July 2022 10:39
