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The images of animal abuse in Vivotecnia were recorded by an ex-worker who had notified her bosses

2021-04-13T14:05:21.796Z


The NGO Cruelty Free International assures that this former employee, whom it keeps anonymous, was ignored when she told what was happening to the laboratory managers


The person who has uncovered the case of animal abuse in the Vivotecnia laboratory, in Madrid, is not called Carlota Saorsa and she is not an activist, as has been reported.

The harsh images released by Cruelty Free International were recorded by a former employee of the company whose identity remains anonymous.

According to the international organization, this person was part of the laboratory staff between 2018 and 2020 and, more importantly, notified the company directors of the practices that their colleagues carried out in animal experimentation.

Monkeys, dogs, pigs, rabbits, rats or mice without anesthesia, bleeding on the ground;

the application of techniques that cause unnecessary pain and suffering… all this, along with the humiliations and verbal abuse, she told her superiors, horrified.

But they ignored him.

This is stated by Carlos Contreras, the lawyer Cruelty Free International turned to for legal advice.

Contreras affirms that these practices were allowed, had the approval of the managers and were generalized.

Several months later, the worker began recording and collecting evidence.

After two years, he left there.

The result is hours and hours of footage and a report of more than 70 pages that is in the hands of the Environmental Prosecutor's Office.

The lawyer assures that the former worker is "scared to death and very traumatized."

For this reason, the association and he will protect their identity even before the courts, to which they will go both administratively and criminally as plaintiffs.

"We do not know who Carlota Saorsa is, the woman they are congratulating for the investigation, but I can assure one hundred percent that it is not her."

They also don't care if the images are attributed to someone else.

The important thing, he assures, is that the content of the complaint reaches a successful conclusion.

And, for now, they are succeeding.

Katy Taylor, director of scientific affairs for Cruelty Free International, contacted Contreras a month ago about an alleged serious case of abuse in Spain.

They needed a lawyer and he, who in 2014 had defended his doctoral thesis on animal law, seemed the right person.

“At the beginning I said 'well, let's see…', because sometimes suffering in animal experimentation is covered by the law.

But when I started to see the images, I couldn't believe it, ”says the lawyer.

Contreras sat down with the NGO members and began to select images that could be disseminated.

The result has been an informative bomb that the British newspaper uncovered last Thursday

The Guardian

, and which was echoed the following day by

eldiario.es

.

It is not easy to know what exactly is done in a laboratory where experiments with animals.

In this case, it was seen, according to Taylor's email account, that the worst acts of cruelty were not committed only by "one or two individuals", but that there was "a culture of verbal and physical abuse."

Moreover, according to the director of the NGO, who has seen all the uncensored images, assures that “the existing staff trained the new staff, including the interns, to use cruel techniques, for example, shaking the rats to allegedly subdue them ”.

Image from the video of Cruelty Free Internacional that shows the conditions of experimentation with animals in the Vivotecnia laboratory in Madrid.

The German company, whose headquarters in Spain is located in Tres Cantos, north of the capital, carries out safety and toxicity analyzes of drugs and health products, biocides and the cosmetic, chemical and agrochemical industries.

His laboratory serves scientific institutions, many of which have already demanded an official investigation of what happened.

The CEO of Vivotecnia, Andrés König, acknowledged on Saturday that some images have been "shocking".

Members of the Community of Madrid appeared with several Seprona agents in Tres Cantos and collected enough information to immediately close the laboratory in a precautionary manner.

But they did not announce it until Sunday, when dozens of activists had been protesting all weekend at the door of the facilities to demand that the animals be handed over to them.

This Monday, in fact, the protests continued and the activists organized to continue there until the animals were removed.

It will not be easy.

Many of them have been inoculated with different viruses and will have to do a certain quarantine, according to Alberto Díez, spokesman for the Federation of Animal Protection and Defense Associations (FAPAM) in Madrid and an expert in animal experimentation issues.

What will be vital for the investigation, he explains, is having access to the protocols, "because in this world everything is highly legislated."

“You cannot touch an animal's hair without the consent of the Community.

The laboratory makes a report justifying why it should investigate with animals and the Administration has to validate it, ”says Díaz.

Then, an ethics committee within the company must be in charge of ensuring compliance with animal welfare regulations.

In this case, from the published images, something has gone wrong.

The basic axes of the concept of animal protection in research, Díaz emphasizes, are based on the principle of the three Rs: replacement (use other options whenever possible), reduction (use the least number of animals) and refinement (treat them with the least possible cruelty).

"Some of the R's have been left by the wayside," he insists.

And an anonymous worker has put the debate on the table.

The CSIC will consider its contract with Vivatecnia when the investigation ends

The scandal has provoked numerous reactions against the animal abuse allegedly caused by the investigated laboratory.

Cruelty Free International has already achieved almost 250,000 signatures on Change.org to close the company and even the Higher Center for Scientific Research (CSIC), a public body attached to the Ministry of Science and Innovation, has had to pronounce on the subject, after It came to light that he signed a contract in 2020 with the German company's laboratory.

"The CSIC expresses the most absolute rejection and condemnation without palliative of the content of the video recorded in the facilities of the Vivotecnia company, recently released, and which shows shocking images of animal abuse," he said in a statement.



The CSIC has explained that it firmly supports the investigation opened by the competent authorities of the Community of Madrid to clarify what happened and that it will act based on the result thereof.

"Therefore, once all the necessary information is available, the CSIC will consider the termination of the existing contract with this company."



The CSIC has been obliged to inform "the whole of society" that the images in the video broadcast "do not at all correspond to the research with animals carried out in the institution."

"All animal experimentation that is dealt with in the CSIC centers is carried out in strict compliance with current legislation and with scrupulous respect for international ethical recommendations on animal welfare", he assured.


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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-04-13

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