EQUIVITA PRESS RELEASE 26/02/2012

900 MONKEYS FOR FAKE SCIENCE
900 monkeys for experimentation are arriving in Italy from China
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Following the news that 900 monkeys to be used for experimentation are arriving in Italy from China, EQUIVITA Scientific Commission believes that the time has come to say

STOP!

- Stop passing off as valid a research method which has NEVER undergone (and would never pass) the verification process imposed to any other method.

- Stop imposing on Europe a biomedical research method which is considered anti-scientific, and therefore misleading, by an increasingly wide number of scientists and by the most qualified scientific centres (see the papers published on Science, British Medical Journal, Scientific American, Nature, etc.), since the responses obtained from animals cannot be transferred to the human species.

- Stop leaving undisturbed the lobbies which make Europe impervious to the “epochal turning-point” in biomedical research. Such an epochal turning-point (i.e. quitting animal testing) was launched and explained in the United States in 2007 by NRC (National Research Council) with the paper titled “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy”.

- Stop preventing in Europe what has already been taking place for 5 years in the United States in national toxicological research centres (EPA, FDA, USDA, NIEHS): the replacement of data derived from the “animal model” (which we consider unreliable) with data which are specific for the human species and based on the study of cells and tissues.

- Stop letting private interests prevail on common ones and pushing the European Union backward as regards scientific progress in the field of biomedical and toxicological research.

- Stop endangering citizens' health by preventing the access to far more exhaustive, reliable, fast and cheap research methods, obtained with extraordinary new technologies which are already used in many countries and which are the only ones that can safeguard us from the dangers of an increasingly polluted environment.

- Finally, stop remaining indifferent to the appeal of the great majority of European citizens (86% of the population in 2006 according to a Commission survey) which, under art. 13 of the EU Treaty, invoke the end of vivisection and respect for animals as “sentient beings”.

- To conclude, we want to say STOP to the European DIRECTIVE 2010/63 which, mindless of the road paved beyond the Atlantic, has boosted animal testing and even extended its application modes, thus missing a unique opportunity to bring Europe up to date in the ethical and scientific domain.

EQUIVITA believes that the time has come for Europe to gain awareness on this subject and to start a new leading role in relation to an important CULTURAL CHANGE, which is essential in order to safeguard all living beings and research progress.

The 900 monkeys can trigger a peaceful, but revolutionary action by all European citizens against the cruel, misleading, raving practice called VIVISECTION. It would be significant if such a long-awaited cultural renaissance could start, once again, in Italy.

 
EQUIVITA
Scientific Commission
+39 06 3220720
+39 335 8444949
www.equivita.it
[email protected]

(Translated from Italian by Giuliana Mafrica – Translators against vivisection)

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