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Protesting Animal Testing, Intruders Vandalize Italian Lab

Posted by timothy on from the matter-of-priorities dept.

ananyo writes "Activists occupied an animal facility at the University of Milan, Italy, at the weekend, releasing mice and rabbits and mixing up cage labels to confuse experimental protocols. Researchers at the university say that it will take years to recover their work. Many of the animals at the facility are genetic models for psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Some of the mice removed by activists were delicate mutants and immunosuppressed 'nude' mice, which die very quickly outside controlled environments. No arrests have been made following the 12-hour drama, which took place on Saturday, although the university says that it will press charges against the protesters. The attack was staged by the animal-rights group that calls itself Fermare Green Hill (or Stop Green Hill), in reference to the Green Hill dog-breeding facility near Brescia, Italy, which it targets for closure."

6 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Animal Cruelty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hmm... perhaps among the charges should be animal cruelty for exposing the immunosuppressed animals to pathogens that will likely kill them in rather painful manners.

    1. Re:Animal Cruelty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've never encountered a single "animal rights" group member who didn't make the whole lot of them look bad. They pretty much uniformly don't give a rat's ass about the well-being of any animal they encounter, and are only really concerned with their ability to push people around and make demands. If they didn't have the dubious banner of "animal rights" to scream at people under, they'd find some other reason, and act exactly the same way.

      As an example, in the city of Windsor, Ontario, there was a group of animal rights idiots who routinely protested circuses that were brought into town, claiming that all sorts of "animal cruelty" was being perpetrated, and sending death threats to anyone involved with the show. In the span of 20 years, there was indeed one case of animal cruelty - perpetrated by the leader of the animal rights protesters, as she kept a dog muzzled (so it couldn't pant to cool off) and didn't even give it water, while standing out on hot pavement with no shade in 28 degree (C) weather for eight hours. It's no wonder the Canadian government has most of these people watch-listed as members of terrorist organizations.

    2. Re:Animal Cruelty by jythie · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Something to keep in mind, in most animal rights circles, PETA and the like are a joke. They are not taken seriously nor are they considered even remotely helpful to their cause. Most of them are much more likely to be affiliated with ASPCA or local no-kill shelters, but they are a lot less news-worthy so PETA tends to get the headlines and attention.... PETA is the Westburo Baptist Church of the animal right's world.

      As for the belief/morality.. while it varies, it usually stems from the perception that many animals are thinking, feeling, social creatures.. not as intelligent or self aware as humans but possessing the same basic capabilities in diminished capacity.. thus they apply the same moral standards that society normally receives for diminished humans like babies or the mentally handicapped. Thus treatment that we would generally not accept for such people are also morally reprehensible to them for animals. Naturally there is a lot of variance there though.

      Unfortunately like the abortion debate much of it hinges on beliefs on dividing lines that, while there are plenty of facts, what those facts actually matter is grounded in personal belief.

  2. Re:No Arrests? by BasilBrush · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Europe tends to have a more easy going attitude towards student protest than the US.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

  3. Re:Meeting by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have a better idea. Next time those activists got to the doctor, they should be offered bleeding and sea cures as treatment. No antibiotics, insulin, or modern drugs.

  4. Animal supremacists are sick people by darthium · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hah.... Problem is, for the nuts that do this it doesn't matter if the animals live or die. Either they're "saved from a worse fate" in the lab, or it's "the scientists who made them like this" so their existence is already unnatural or they're even "martyrs to the cause", but it's a flimsy justification for wanting to bust up someone's workplace without running into the level of security to be found in the average factory or office complex.

    Ultimately, it's not that they like animals. It's that they hate people.

    And I'm not exagerating, last year, in a spanish 'animal lovers' facebook group named F.R.A (you can verify it by yourself), a girl told the rest how 'good person'was an old lady, who beat up his grandson (who was just learning to walk) after being bitten by the house's dog, she produly told the group that 'no question was asked' and she inmediatly figured out that the dog was innocent.

    And many cheered it up!

    Even in youtube videos, where little children got severely injured (look for instance, "perros atacan niño", there are comments accusing the victim that 'the kid must have provoked the dog, dog's won't attack without being provoked', and when I ask them to watch videos in youtube, like "Dog attacks Police Officer Taser Full News Report" they get angry, and many of them say I'm a nasty person, and that they refuse to watch the video.

    FWIW, they openly say they prefer animals than humans, they don't bother to deny it.

    Would you feel well, if you realize some of these individuals, is near your children on daily basis? Shouldn't PSYCHIATRY already have noticed them? Or are there studies of this mental illness that Im not aware of?