The Italian Council of State issued a judgement on January 28 definitively reconfirming the authorization’s validity, issued by the Ministry of Health, for the “Light-up” Project conducted by the University of Turin in collaboration with the University of Parma, which includes lab experiments on six macaques, actually locked up in enclosures inside the two universities.

An unbelievable sentence that comes just a few months after the Council of State itself suspended the tests in October 2020 asking for an “analytical and motivated scientific depth-analysis” and entrusting the decision to an external body. The result of their analysis would have been discussed with other parties and experts, but the debate never took place.

This judgement condemns AGAIN innocent beings to endure atrocious suffering for lab tests that have NO scientific validity and are NOT predictive for the human species.

OIPA and LIMAV (International Medical League for the Abolition of Vivisection) have been fighting for months to reach the suspension of those useless and cruel experiments launching the campaign “You can close your eyes for a while, he will forever”.

Those macaques will be restrained, blinded with a surgery and subjected to tests and experiments for five years, then, when no longer needed, they will be euthanized. This is the fate sealed by that decision: the life of sentient beings for a research funded 2 million euros.

The target? Recreate an “animal model” for the study of people who have lost their sight due to brain damage and not eye problems.

Researchers justify the project stating that “brain has no pain receptors”, but at the same time contradicting themselves by saying that “since the project foresees a unilateral lesion of the primary visual cortex, it is considered appropriate to estimate the expected level of suffering as severe“.

But what do Italians think? According to the Eurispes 2018 report, 80% of the population would like animal testing to be definitively overcome and even scientific world is increasingly oriented in this direction. Therefore, this is not just a battle of animal rights associations, but there are now many doctors and researchers who are asking for more funding for scientific methods that completely exclude animal exploitation by the fact that no animal model can replace the human model.

“We believe that it is not necessary to bring big arguments or evidence to demonstrate how ethically deplorable this experiment is! – underlines Massimo Comparotto, President of OIPA Italy – If the ethical aspect for some is not enough, you cannot close your eyes to the attested scientific futility also expressed by LIMAV’s doctors”.

“Fifty years have now passed since animal testing was deemed unreliable due to the undeniable genetic diversity between humans and non-human animals – highlights Professor Bruno Fedi, surgeon specialized in Urology, Pathological Anatomy, Obstetrics and Oncology, formerly lecturer in Urology and head physician in Pathological Anatomy, honorary president LIMAV Italy – Scientific research is oriented in a completely different direction. Recently, in fact, researchers of high level, such as Thomas Hartung and Arti Ahluwalia, have obtained “mini-brains” from human cell cultures and other organs on which lab tests were proved reliable. Then why in Italy we are stuck in torturing macaques and other animals? It is also to report that those tests are conducted in secrecy to avoid disapproval from the more advanced scientific community, consequently any abuse is legitimate. This anti-democratic side of the scientific research is unacceptable by the entire civil society”

However, inexplicably, those medieval lab tests have had the green light to continue. But, we will NOT GIVE UP!

It is renowned that the predictive research validity on animal models is random and irrelevant.

Our struggle for animals’ life will continue for the sake of medical research without suffering which, in 2021, is possible and truly reliable. It is not just a dream, it is the reality!

OIPA and LIMAV stand by the side of the 600,000 animals sacrificed every year in Italy for cruel and non-predictive research for the human species.

 

Sit-in October 2020 (city of Parma and Turin)