Tonkean macaques at Silabe, in Niederhausbergen (Bas-Rhin), August 30, 2016. PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP
Fort Foch, in Niederhausbergen (Bas-Rhin), on the outskirts of Strasbourg, has served for around thirty years as a place of quarantine and transit for non-human primates (NHP) intended for experimental research. The Silabe laboratory, dependent on the University of Strasbourg, is the entry point for approximately 15% of macaques used in public and private laboratories in Europe. An activity opposed by the Pro Anima association, which promotes “cutting edge research not using laboratory animals” and aims the ” permanent closure “ of the establishment, in the words of Sylvia Hecker, its vice-president.
The Strasbourg administrative court has just offered a victory to the association, by a decision dated January 30. This cancels a 2020 decree from the prefect of Bas-Rhin which gave approval to Silabe “for the importation, supply and use of animals for scientific purposes”. Consequently, a second request for renewal of this approval will have to be examined, after the organization of a public consultation procedure. Until this approval is issued, Silabe must “maintain the site in a minimal operating state by managing its day-to-day affairs and ensuring the well-being of the primates without continuing its activities”the judges decided.
The Huglo Lepage law firm, which represents Pro Anima, was able to find the breach by relying on the environmental code: Silabe produces waste and discharges its wastewater into the public sanitation network, and it East “likely to cause, due to laboratory accidents, risks to natural environments”, notes the court. Consequently, a public consultation should have been organized. It is this prefectural defect which led to the shutdown of Silabe. The University of Strasbourg announced on February 14 that a new application for approval had been submitted to the prefecture and that this “is preparing to launch said consultation”.
A “wearing” administrative guerrilla war
This is not a referendum for or against the activity of Silabe, “but information to the public on its effects”recognizes Benjamin Huglo, defender of Pro Anima, for whom “this affair demonstrates a need for transparency”. He notes that the administrative judge did not rule on another aspect of the request, namely the nature of Silabe’s activity. If he conducts his own scientific research, the “platform offers services for third parties: at what point do we switch to a commercial activity, animal breeding?he asks himself. In which case there would be an abuse of procedure.”
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2024-02-20 06:01:18
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