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...
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 activists took some of the animals and were told during negotiations that they would be permitted to come back later and take more.
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...
They posted pictures of themselves on their
organisation’s website, where they also declared that they would stay for as long as it took to get agreement to leave with all the animals. The facility hosts around 800 animals, mostly genetically modified mice but also some rabbits, according to Martino Bolognesi, a structural biologist at the university. The activists had brought supplies of food and sleeping bags.
Meanwhile, hundreds of animal-rights sympathizers demonstrated outside, according to reports in the Italian press.
Researchers who turned up at the lab to work on their experiments found dozens of civil and military police at the scene, says Guidobono-Cavalchini.
Paola Viani, deputy director of the pharmacology department, worked with police to negotiate with the activists. By evening they had reached a compromise whereby the activists left with fewer than 100 animals, with the understanding that they could return for the rest later; negotiations about whether they may do so are still continuing, according Bolognesi...
