Science - USA (2022-05-06)

PHOTO: MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN RESEARCH

SCIENCE science.org 6 MAY 2022 • VOL 376 ISSUE 6593 567

I

n many countries animal rights groups

decry the many thousands, even mil-

lions, of animals used in medical ex-

periments. In Germany, activists have

adopted a new tack: focusing on the

even larger number of animals that

never make it into an experiment—perhaps

because they don’t meet the criteria for a

study or were created in the course of breed-

ing a new research strain—and are killed to

save space and money.

Science has learned that prosecutors in

the German state of Hesse are now investi-

gating whether the culling of such “excess”

research animals by local universities and

other institutions constitutes a crime. The

probes were launched after two German ani-

mal rights groups filed multiple complaints

with the prosecutors in June 2021 arguing

that this killing violates the country’s strict

animal protection laws, which forbid hurting

animals without reasonable cause. The com-

plaints target universities in Frankfurt, Mar-

burg, Giessen, and Darmstadt; Hesse-based

Max Planck institutes; the Paul Ehrlich Insti-

tute in Langen, which is the federal institute

responsible for vaccines; and multiple pri-

vate research organizations.

One complaint, involving 222 small fish

killed by a company because it allegedly

had no room for them, has already been dis-

missed. But spokespeople for the prosecu-

tor’s offices in Frankfurt, Giessen, Marburg,

and Darmstadt confirmed to Science that in-

vestigations into other allegations continue,

with the Frankfurt general state prosecutor’s

office coordinating the matter.

The stakes are high: Germany’s animal

protection laws, which together with EU

regulations govern animal research, subject

those who kill vertebrates without a proper

reason to fines or up to 3 years in prison.

“The community is extremely concerned,”

including the keepers who cull the animals,

says Andreas Lengeling, who is responsible

for animal research at the Max Planck Soci-

ety. “The mood among researchers in Ger-

many is grim,” adds Jan Tuckermann of Ulm

University, a hormone researcher who is also

on a local commission responsible for ap-

proving animal research. In response to the

complaints, some institutions are already

seeking to reduce the number of surplus

animals by creating research strains more

efficiently and matching supply to demand.

“I know clients who are considering relocat-

ing animal breeding abroad,” adds Matthias

Dombert, a lawyer in Germany who advises

research organizations on the issue.

Two years ago, the European Union es-

timated that in 2017, when EU labs used

9.4 million animals in experiments, 12.6 mil-

lion lab-reared animals, about 83% mice and

7% zebrafish, were culled without any stud-

ies of them. About one-third of those excess

research animals had been bred and killed in

Germany, the Federal Ministry of Food and

Agriculture has estimated.

Germany’s debate over excess research

animals was fueled in 2019 when a high

court ruled that vertebrates can’t be killed

simply because of economic reasons. The

case involved not research animals, but

male chicks, which worldwide are routinely

killed in egg-production facilities that only

value hens. Because such culling had been

common practice for decades in Germany,

the Federal Administrative Court ruled

that a transitional period was appropriate,

which encouraged development of methods

to sex eggs (Science, 16 August 2019, p. 627);

the chick culling wasn’t outlawed in Ger-

many until January. Prosecutors and courts

have issued no criminal sanctions so far.

Still, the 2019 verdict caught the atten-

tion of those opposing animal studies. “It’s

known for a long time that animals are

killed in labs because they are not needed,”

says Silke Strittmatter, research associate at

the nongovernmental organization Doctors

Against Animal Experiments, which filed

the criminal complaints together with the

German Juridical Society for Animal Pro-

tection Law. She notes that a decade-old

German verdict based on the animal pro-

tection law held that tigers may be allowed

to reproduce in a zoo “only if adequate ani-

mal housing is secured.” The same principle

should apply to other animals, she says. Re-

search institutions should at least maintain

any excess animals until they die naturally,

although she realizes that could quickly

overwhelm their current housing capacity.

Institutions can’t reasonably house that

many animals for so long, according to

Lengeling. He says authorities accepted the

cullings, typically performed with carbon

dioxide for mice, at least until the animal

rights groups made it an issue. The crimi-

nal complaints “caught everyone includ-

ing the legislature, which didn’t intend it

that way for laboratory animals, off guard,”

Tuckermann says.

The German Research Foundation says

culling should be allowed under the coun-

try’s laws if animal housing, or the per-

sonnel needed to maintain the animals, is

limited and the space is needed for actual

research animals. It nonetheless recom-

mends considering alternative uses of the

excess animals.

For now, Tuckermann says, his re-

search group has stopped culling excess

animals—until their animal housing runs

out of capacity. Meanwhile, his group has

reprogrammed its software for managing

lab animals: Previously a user could re-

ANIMAL WELFARE

Many lab-raised animals are never studied

at all and are regularly culled.

By Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup

Germany weighs whether culling

excess lab animals is a crime

As prosecutors evaluate complaints from animal rights

groups, labs try to reduce surplus

0506NewsInDepth_15558970.indd 567 5/3/22 5:45 PM