Numerous researchers, laboratories and companies in the pharmaceutical sector consider that the draft Walloon Animal Welfare Code threatens animal experiments. This is reported on Wednesday in Le Soir. However, the text is “in the course of being refined” and will be subject to a consultation process. This is stated by the department for the Minister of the Environment and Animal Welfare, Carlo Di Antonio.
In a letter from the University of Liège (ULg) addressed to other university establishments and research centres, the scientists share their fear of the desire to instigate the disappearance of animal experimentation. This indicated by Eric Haubruge, the First Vice-Rector of ULg, “All of the frameworks are in place for this progressive disappearance.”
The signatories to the letter lament that the draft legislation is inspired by antispeciesism, which refuses all discrimination between animal species, and impedes research. They add that by replacing animal experimentation by other methods, the code “annihilates every possibility of preclinical research on medicines in the Walloon region.”
Minister Di Antonio’s department says that the text will not go before the Walloon government tomorrow, as initially anticipated.
The Brussels Times
