A recent break in at the University of Milan by animal rights extremists has put the university’s research into psychiatric disorders back several years. In response, some scientists have taken a stand for the importance of biomedical research. Now a European organisation – The Basel Declaration society – are calling on scientists to sign a petition in solidarity with those affected by this extremist action.
We reproduce the call for solidarity below.
Dear friends, colleagues and everybody in support of biomedical and basic research, On Saturday April 20, 2013, a research animal facility of the University of Milano and the National Institute of Neurosciences got devastated by animal rights extremists. Mice requiring special care were abducted and a large number of invaluable and long-term experiments to study neurological diseases for which no cures exist such as Autism, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and others were destroyed due to these senseless acts.
For more details see: http://www.nature.com/news/animal-rights-activists-wreak-havoc-in-milan-laboratory-1.12847.
In discussion with Prof. Francesco Clementi, a signatory of the Basel Declaration and renowned pharmacologist whose research was devastated by the attack, we have decided to ask you to join us in an international call for solidarity to strongly condemn these violent and extremist acts against researchers and their animals.
Therefore, we now ask you to show your solidarity with the Italian colleagues, whose research has been so badly hurt at this time. What happened in Milan, can happen anywhere anytime if we do not stop it! In democratic societies, we can no longer accept extremist acts against researchers devoted to basic and medical research, which is key to finding cures and/or better treatments for the many still devastating and deadly diseases. We need to send a very strong message to the extremists, but also to politicians, lawmakers and law enforcement officials that unfortunately do not always act forceful enough to prevent and/or interfere with such extremist acts.
Our colleagues in Milano deserve your support as they are part of the large academic researcher community that devotes enormous efforts and time, often at personal expense, to gain an understanding of the disease mechanisms and find ways to interfere with or even cure them. Their research is key to continue to improve health care for us, our children and the generations to come.
Therefore, we kindly ask you to please use the following weblink to show your solidarity - one minute of your time will help to make the big difference - please just cruise to http://www.basel-declaration.org/call-for-solidarity/ and sign!
As we are a 100% grass-root organization, we critically depend on your forwarding this email to your friends and colleagues and asking them to pledge their support as well. Simply ask them to go to http://www.basel-declaration.org/call-for-solidarity/ and sign!
I would like to thank you for your support and forwarding this email to others!
Very best regards, ROLF ZELLER
Prof. Rolf Zeller President of the Basel Declaration Society
Last edited: 26 October 2022 17:51
