A global information service about animal rights extremism

ARE Incident Map

Italian Animal Rights Vandalism at the University of Milan


university_of_milan_vandalism.jpg

On Friday morning, scientists at the Pharmacological and Biomolecular Science Department at the University of Milan had a bad surprise. Someone wrote on the wall “VIVISECTORS ARE MURDERERS” (“Vivisettori Assassini” ) and poured red paint all over the buildings, breaking glass and throwing smelly “material” (possibly faecal matter) inside the building. The same happened in Via Viotti, at the Department of Medical Biotechnologies and Translational Medicine. It is not clear if there was a single target or it is a general attack towards all researchers.

This is not the first time that the University of Milan has been targeted. Back in April 2013, five animal rights activists forced entry inside the Pharmacology Department of Milan’s University. The activists barricaded themselves inside the facility, tying chains around their necks and the doors’ handles to prevent police from breaking in.They demanded that every animal in the facility should be released – about a thousand rats and seventeen rabbits - meanwhile they removed the animals’ information tags, rendering them effectively useless and throwing away years of research about Parkinson’s, Multiple sclerosis, autism and such. In an effort to prevent injuries to the people involved, the director of the department started negotiations that ended with the release about a hundred mice and rats and a rabbit.