The Italian vivisection laboratory RBM-Marxer

(info from the website: www.norbm.org, owned by NoRBM Campaign)

What it is and what it does

RBM - Marxer is the name of a laboratory located in Colleretto Giacosa (near Turin) which has been performing experiments on animals for 30 years on behalf of the pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic and food industry. At the moment, in its laboratories there are 1000 rodents, 19 rabbits, 25 beagle dogs and an unknown number of monkeys. We cannot know the details of their experiments, but some abstracts of papers published on scientific journals give us enough information.

An example

In 1990, our "friends" - the vivisectors - at the RBM facilities, published an article about a toxicity study carried out on marmoset monkeys (very small monkeys). What does it mean? That the monkeys were forced to assume the chemical under test by means of a catheter implanted into their stomach, which caused painful severe hemorrhaging, ulcers, and necrosis with peritonitis, until their death, occured after several days of suffering. The few of them who were able to escape death were finally "euthanasized" (i.e.: killed). The vivisectors don't like it when we define what they do as "vivisection", they prefer "animal experimentation", in order to pretend that it's a "cleaner" thing. But is it "clean" to poison animals, to make them agonize for days or weeks (sometimes month or years) and then kill them?
Source: Fundam Appl Toxicol 1990 Nov;15(4):800-13

The antivivisection Campaign NoRBM

NoRBM is the name of a Campaign that a group of people are carrying on, in order to stop these cruel and useless experiments. It's a movement which rallies, regularly and resolutely, against the practice of animal experimentation, conducted by the researchers beyond their laboratories walls.
The goal is simple and clear: to make RBM stop using animals in their experiments. RBM is considered as a symbol of all the other laboratories that perform experiments on animals; it isn't the more important or the worst existing case. All laboratories must stop using animals: starting from one or another is the same.

The campaign history and strategy

In order to disturb the RBM workers, in order to hinder those that freely torture animals, in June 2002 a regular activity of picketing was started, in front of the RBM entrance. Once a week a group of people stand outside the RBM facility with megaphones, whistlers, banners, placards, leaflets, in order to let the vivisectors know what we think of them.

Our initial request to the RBM managers was a written declaration stating that animal tests are not scientific and do not yeld any useful information about the final target for the tested chemicals, i.e., human beings. This would have been useful in order to change the current legislation.

Obviously, RBM did not accept, stating - during a meeting among the RBM managers and the spokepersons of the Campaign - that they would never sign such a declaration, because this would have meant to reject decades of work.

Thus, the protests keep going on.

A clear evidence of the annoyance the campaign is creating to the RBM: in April 2003, RBM agreed to let a nation-TV troupe in their laboratories with a requirement: to keep their anonimity. They felt the need to publicly claim that the animals, in their laboratories, don't suffer, are loved and respected. With the clear goal to deceive the uninformed TV-watcher.

On the RBM researchers opinion, who want to give the public a disneyland-like view of reality, the animals don't suffer at the RBM facilities, are well treated, and the researchers themselves love the animals. What happens to the rats, or the rabbits, during the toxicity tests? Nothing, at most they can experience a "slight increase in the temperature", they declared!

The beagle dogs are not shown, again to protect the far-too-sensible public, who can bear the vision of mice and rabbits, which, in Italy, are not considered as pets, but who could have a very different reaction when dogs are shown. And the monkeys, used by RBM in various experiments? During the TV show they were not only not shown, but neither mentioned! But they were there.

Thus RBM wants to defend itself, wants to hide the reality (of animal exploitation) and wants to do it publicly, but anonymously! Our best compliments for their courage!

Moreover, a few days after the TV-show, the RBM was on all the local newspapers and radios: dogs and monkeys have been confiscated and investigations are being carried on in order to ascertain possible irregularities and cruelties towards animals! It's a really unlucky year, for the RBM...

Updated news (in Italian only) on the Press Office page of the NoRBM Campaign: http://www.norbm.org/rassegna.html.

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