Stop the Champalimaud Foundation From Unnecessarily Torturing & Killing Helpless Animals in Research Champalimaud Foundation- Centre for the Unknown – State of the art research & medical facilities??? http://www.fchampalimaud.org/who-we-are/about-us/ The Centre for Neuroscience, from Champalimaud Foundation, is building a Vivarium (Biotério), in Azambuja, where animal testing will be practiced, with all the cruelty embedded in it to breed animals for research purposes. A vivarium is a place where animals are bred and kept (including rats, dogs and rabbits) with the purpose of being used as guinea pigs in animal testing. It will have between 20.000 to 25.000 cages of which animals will be raised and sold to universities, investigation institutes and pharmaceutical companies. It will cost 36 million euros, where 27 millions euros are coming from the taxpayers. This money should not be invested to delay the progress of science but should instead be invested in investigation and implementation of alternative methods, that are more accurate, inexpensive, ethically and compassionately practiced through another forms of research that will not bring extreme cruelty suffering and pain to helpless and weak animals. The competencies of a vivarium includes the following: - The creation and maintenance of laboratory animals to be sold / transferred to laboratories for experimentation; - Ensuring the supply of equipment and facilities necessary for its operations on laboratory animals; - Ensure compliance with the law in force in the creation and maintenance of laboratory animals as well as the standards of the national authority in animal houses; - Keep record of entry and exit of all animals. Although the law requires that there is an ethics committee to monitor the proper functioning of laboratory practices, internal auditing in practice this is reduced or absent in almost all domestic animal breeding. More than 95 percent of U.S. and Canadian facilities offering ATLS courses now use only non-animal education methods such as human-modeled simulators. This shift has been facilitated by innovations in medical simulation technology, increased availability of alternatives, a rising awareness of ethical concerns, and a growing acknowledgment that medical training must be human focused. Help prevent the construction of this Biotério, and to stop the animal experiments that have been practices at the Champalimaud Foundation for years. Please express your outrage and disgust to Champalimaud Foundation against the construction of this animal breeding centre. [email protected] The Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme is already well established under the leadership of Zachary Mainen and currently comprises 13 research groups: [email protected] Dr. Alfred Sommer is Professor of Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, also chairs the Vision Science Award Jury of the Champalimaud Foundation. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/wilmer/employees/cvs/Sommer.html Ask Dr. Sommer who has published five books and 250 scientific articles if he promotes the unnecessary Unethical animal experiments at the Champalimaud Foundation. [email protected] Respectable Medical Research References: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in the United States: http://www.pcrm.org/about/index.html