Swiss pharmaceutical firm lets dogs die cruel death 

Young beagles are being used for cruel animal experiments and left to die in a German laboratory working for a Swiss pharma firm, says the report. (Screenshot from SRF footage) SRF-SWI

Dogs are being left to die in agony in Germany after lab testing for the Swiss pharma company Inthera Bioscience, reports Swiss public television, SRF.

The dogs are young beagles, who are given high doses of substances for experiments on behalf of the Swiss biotech company, according to SRF. They are then left to die in agony with no care. 

The report carries disturbing photos by an employee of the animal protection organisation Soko Tierschutz. This employee got himself hired as a carer in the LPTExternal link animal testing laboratory in Hamburg, and documented for several months what was happening there, says the report.  

The pictures show tubes being inserted into a dog’s stomach and a test substance injected to find the dose at which severe side effects including death occur. The scenes show how the dogs suffer unnecessarily before their death, as they are left to die in agony. 

SRF says that the laboratory is violating international welfare regulations and that such proceedings would not be permitted in Switzerland. 

It quotes Friedrich Mülln of Soko Tierschutz as saying that such experiments are easier to carry out in Germany. “It is cheaper and the authorisation is simpler,” he says.  

Asked for a response, Swiss firm Inthera Bioscience wrote that the authorities have approved all tests but that the company would suspend further cooperation with the service provider, LPT, until it had a “clear picture of the situation”. 

LPT declined to answer specific questions but said such experiments were within the law and that its treatment of animals had never been questioned. An investigation into the service provider’s practices has been opened by the competent authorities following these findings, says SRF.