Niederhausbergen : Exploitation of primates

Who

In July 2015, Dr Anne Vonesch, vice-president of Alsace Nature and member of the European Bureau for the Environment, entrusted the “Niederhausbergen” file to Sylvia Hecker, vice-president of the Pro Anima Scientific Committee.

Quickly, different associations joined Pro Anima to form a motivated and supportive group.

Anima has collaborated with many French associations : Animalsace, Code Animal, Fight for Monkeys, International Campaigns, Animal testing, 269Life, Animalise, or even RAO Reporters or even RAO Reporters and Antidode Europe ;

But also German associations : Soko Tierschutz and Artze gegen Tierversuche ;

In addition to this association, there are dozens of our scientific referents, national and European elected officials, several members of the Board of Directors of the University of Strasbourg ; the national police, general information or the Mundolsheim gendarmerie on which the municipality of Niederhausbergen depends ;

Without forgetting the support of personalities, such as Matthieu Ricard, Aymeric Caron, Anny Duperey ;

And the Huglo-Lepage law firm with which we work and which only defends media and media cases.

What

This file concerns the trade in primates from the University of Strasbourg and transiting through the Primatology Center of Niederhausbergen.

In 2009, UNISTRA (University of Strasbourg) won the call for national projects for the first interministerial fund of 1.7 million euros, enabling it to create ADUEIS, which has since been dissolved. The primate trade is reinstated at the University of Strasbourg.

The endowment from the call for projects makes it possible to finance new facilities on the Fort Foch estate in Niederhausbergen to accommodate primates (initially dedicated mainly to ethology).

According to various prefectural authorizations, the center went from 400 to 800 and then to 1600 animals, of which only 150 are for research in ethology.

The SILABE brand is registered and constitutes a service platform of the University of Strasbourg.

These animals, which come mainly from Mauritius, are bought for €10 per kg and resold for €5,000 per primate to European pharmaceutical companies such as Covance, Hoffmann Laroche, Servier, Novartis, etc.

In addition to this trade, cruel and empirical practices are carried out on these primates (observation conditions and experiments : stress, confinement and isolation, life outside the natural environment, artificially inoculated diseases, heavy procedures and traumas)

The suffering of laboratory animals is not limited to experiments. It begins well upstream, with the capture and transport of animals from their production farms to laboratories, as reported by the damning investigation of the Animal Testing association : transport time, promiscuity with other species, confinement…

With the help of our lawyers, the issue is the closure of the Niederhausbergen Primatology Center and the cessation of a lucrative traffic.

Key dates

• In 2014, a first petition was put online with Animalsace against the extension of primate breeding in Niederhausbergen. The petition has been signed by more than 144,000 people ; and on paper by more than 8800 people including 80 scientists.
• From 2015 and every year, events are organized around the Primatology Center.
• A second petition was launched in 2019 with Animalise and Antidote Europe for the closure of the account center and which collected more than 70,000 signatories.
• In 2020, on the initiative of Alexandra Justamente — Fight for Monkeys, and due to health restrictions, the 1st virtual march in Europe “Justice for Monkeys” is co-organized with Pro Anima
• In 2021, again in collaboration with Fight for Monkeys, a special “Justice for the Monkeys” week of Niederhausbergen is organized.
  Every day of the week : a post on social media to raise public awareness of the situation and exploitation of primates at the Primatology Center in Niederhausbergen.
• In 2022, an appeal was lodged with the Strasbourg Administrative Court against the approval of the Niederhausbergen primatology center. In order to allow a serene course of the legal debate, public demonstrations around Fort Foch have been suspended.
• In 2022, thanks to the mobilization and collective work of numerous associations, Air France KLM, which until then carried out the air transport of animals including primates intended for Niederhausbergen, is giving up the transport of laboratory monkeys.
• In 2023, as part of the International Day for the Abolition of Animal Experimentation (April 22) and the World Day for Animals in Laboratories (April 24), a Silent Line is organized on the Pont de l’Europe in Strasbourg. BFM TV Alsace, France 3 Alsace, DNA cover the event.