2007_10_01_archive

San Marino bans vivisection

Maybe a small step, but it seems highly significant to me: the

Republic of San Marino, an independent state lying entirely in

north-east Italy, has abolished all experiments on animals.

This tiny country on the Adriatic Coast, which already has the record

of being the oldest republic in the world, now can be proud of another

record in the history of civilization: to be the first country on the

globe to totally forbid animal experimentation.

In February of this year the Associazione Sammarinese Protezione

Animali (A.P.A.S.) presented a law proposal supported by citizens'

signatures to ban vivisection, which on the 20th September 2007 has

been approved by the General Council, San Marino's legislative body.

Now San Marino can call itself a "cruelty-free country", at least as

far as animal experimentation is concerned.

"We are very happy of this result, so good and quick" say Marina

Berati from NoVivisezione.org and Massimo Tettamanti, Europe manager

for I-CARE (Centro Internazionale per le Alternative nella Ricerca e

nella Didattica), who, along with Stefano Cagno from Rome's Lega

Anti-Vivisezione, have been helping to achieve this outcome, "and

A.P.A.S. volunteers have been extremely determined and successful.

From now on San Marino will be off-limits for chemical and

pharmaceutical companies carrying out animal tests and for all

research institutions, both public and private, often funded by

unaware members of the public, which base their research on

vivisection".

A.P.A.S. Press Office says that thanks to this new law, which heavily

punishes animal experimenters, San Marino Republic will represent a

pole of attraction for companies using methods alternative to

vivisection, which are better, more reliable and cheaper too.

I don't know how many animal tests were conducted in San Marino before

the introduction of this law. But I don't think that the number of

animals saved is the only issue here. I believe that this is a

breakthrough anyway, because it establishes a precedent and has great