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Protesting Animal Testing, Intruders Vandalize Italian Lab

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."

11 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. 28DaysLater by phyr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Haven't we learned anything from the movies... this is how the zombie apocalypse begins

  2. 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 The+Archon+V2.0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:Animal Cruelty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sorry anon, they're not misunderstood, they're just misanthropes.
      Their target isn't any institution, it's making themselves feel "big" and "important" by hurting others. Of the groups I've encountered, many have connections to other violent protest groups, and long criminal records. Some of the newbies might be innocents that got dragged into it without realizing what they were getting into, but most of those either see what's going on and quit, or join in and become just as bad.

    3. Re:Animal Cruelty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know if this is a problem in the country where you live but where I live there have been an incident where an animal right group hid crushed glass in meat based food. (Chickens in this case.)
      Since I don't really think that there are that many activists who are willing to break laws to this extent I suspect that it's the same kind of people who would break in to release those animals.
      I don't think that they really mean any harm but rather that they don't think of the consequences. The former incident could have caused the death of several humans and fits pretty much every description of terrorism. (Except the one that requires them to be Muslims.)
      This time everything turned out OK but what happens when they do it to a lab that is trying to find a cure for HIV or is trying to find antibiotics that are effective against resistant strains? Considering the possible danger to society it could be justified to use lethal force to prevent such an incident to happen.

      They might not eat babies but I'm pretty sure you can trick them into doing it if it was for a good cause.

  3. Re:28PostsLater by Dareth · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Haven't we learned anything from the movies... this is how the zombie apocalypse begins"

    Nope, still not funny. Will check back in 28 weeks.

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
  4. Re:Thanks for volunteering by lgw · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, they committed a crime and should face trail in accordance with the laws of the area. They did not volunteer to be experimental subjects.

    Quite right, quite right! First the trial, then the medical experimentation.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  5. Re:Animal rights extremism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're uniformly odd (gay, vegan, left-wing, what not) not-very-bright, hyper-emotional, irrational and violent, not to mention, annoying. In otherwise, extremism and violence-prone personalities.

    You forgot to mention they tend to make ridiculous sweeping generalizations.

  6. Re:Assholes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly my thoughts. Who would breed animals who is only purpose is to suffer?

    That's not why they are bred and you damn well know it, dickhead. And as far as any "suffering", many of them live a life of luxury by animal standards.
    If you're not willing to completely abandon ALL modern medicines and procedures, then you're a hypocrite plain and simple.

  7. 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?

  8. Re:Assholes by digitrev · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am willing to abandon all modern medicines beyond antibiotics from say, 20 years ago.

    So to clarify, you'd willingly give up the vaccinations for Lyme disease, rotavirus, and HPV? And finally, I hope that you never get cancer, because I'd be willing to wager that the best drugs have been developed fairly recently.

    We also have to agree though to stop developing chemicals which cause new and old diseases to proliferate.

    You do realize that antibiotics are the drugs most likely to cause resistant strains of bacteria, right? Other than that, I have no idea what chemicals are allowing diseases to proliferate.

    Oh and stop feeding animals with inappropriate diets which cause things like prions to also spread. Who's with me?!

    I'll give you this one, but I'm unsure as to how this relates to the rest of your post.

    --
    Cynical Idealist