Cologne. Success for the nationwide association Doctors Against Animal Testing (ÄgT) and other animal rights activists in Düsseldorf: After a year of commitment and protest, the Heinrich Heine University is finally releasing two of its dogs, a beagle and a foxhound, from its animal testing laboratory. But this does not mean an end to the protests.
Few people know that, in addition to mice and rats, animals such as dogs, cats, goats, pigs and monkeys are also used in animal testing. This is also the case at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. ÄgT has been criticizing the animal testing that takes place here for decades. The focus has always been on the particularly cruel experiments on beagle dogs in the field of dentistry.
“In July 2023, the university announced that no such experiments on dogs had been carried out since 2018. At that time, 24 dogs were kept in the laboratory – in 2024, only four,” explains Eva Nimtschek, ÄgT public relations employee and ÄgT working group leader in Düsseldorf. Since then, these dogs have continued to be kept exclusively in the interior of the animal testing laboratory with an exercise area on the roof. Animal welfare organizations have been protesting against this for twelve months with numerous actions, including vigils, demonstrations, and letters and emails to those responsible. Numerous animal welfare organizations with experience in placing laboratory dogs were rejected by the university.
In January, the university accused the activists of confusing “freedom” with “leash” (1). They took the view that keeping the dogs privately in a human family could not offer them better conditions than in an animal testing laboratory. The university said that the animals should remain in their familiar environment for reasons of animal welfare.
But the animal rights activists' persistent protest is now showing success: after several discussions between the Düsseldorf animal welfare association and those responsible at the university, the “Re-Homeing” program is now to be launched. In the future, certain animals that are no longer “needed” in the animal testing laboratory will be placed in private hands.
“The release of the two dogs is only a small partial success. The establishment of such a program must not obscure the fact that the vast majority of animals die or are killed in animal testing,” says Eva Nimtschek. “This does not mean an end to the protests.”
At the University of Düsseldorf, more than 20,000 animals are still kept in the laboratory. Two to three times that number of animals die here every year. ÄgT is calling for a stop to all animal testing and a switch to exclusively animal-free research and teaching.
Information and online petition www.lasstdiehundefrei.de.