It was one of the first rescue operations carried out by animal activists in France.
For two years, the punching actions of anti-speciesist activists have multiplied in the four corners of France.
On May 21, 2017, a group of animal activists entered the site of the National Institute for Agricultural Research (which became INRAE at the start of 2020) in Auzeville, in the metropolitan area of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), to free about twenty pregnant rabbits used for experiments.
With their faces uncovered, these militants had stepped over the fences of the site with stepladders, blew up the padlocks of the hutches, then embarked the rabbits in cages during this commando operation.
Of the twenty activists who took part in this action, only two were summoned this Wednesday before the Toulouse tribunal de grande instance for aggravated theft, after a complaint from INRAE.
"A political trial"
"It is a political trial to put sticks in the wheels of the fight against anti-species since we are only two on the bench of defendants, denounces Vincent Aubry, also collective founder Animal1st, at the origin of this punch operation.
The dual objective of this rescue was to get these animals out of the experimental building, but also to plead civil disobedience by making visible the policies of INRAE, a public establishment under the dual supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and that of Research. , which receives public funds for research that benefits the private livestock sector.
Public money is used to finance opaque projects, certainly not to improve the comfort of animals.
This is also why we do our face-uncovered rescues.
"
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For this activist, already convicted by justice in other similar cases and awaiting other judgments in the coming months, these prosecutions do not cool his determination to challenge the public authorities and citizens on this question of well-being. animal.
On May 21, 2017, the activist group first threw a bucket of fake blood on the acronym of Inrae before entering the laboratories where the pregnant rabbits were located.
The twenty or so animals rescued were then placed in shelters.
"Shocked by this intrusion"
INRAE prefers to wait for the trial to speak more about this operation.
"In the meantime, the research teams from the Inrae Occitanie-Toulouse center wish to point out that they were particularly shocked by this intrusion into their laboratory," indicates the institution.
Their research was stopped by this theft of rabbits.
This malicious act endangered the lives of animals.
These researchers were carrying out work to improve animal welfare, by studying precisely the origin of the digestive disorders frequently observed in young rabbits during the weaning period, at the origin of a certain number of deaths of young rabbits.
"
A rally called for by the Animal1st collective is scheduled for Wednesday, from 1 p.m., in front of the Toulouse tribunal de grande instance.
