Animal testing: One Voice is requesting the control of a repeat offending laboratory in Finistère
Cedre in Brest has never been punished or reinspected despite numerous serious non-conformities revealed in 2014 and 2016.
The Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (Cedre) in Brest uses various species of fish to test the effects of contaminated products. In 2016, the Finistère Prefecture raised a flagrant disrespect of the regulations… without this giving rise to a penalty, or even a new regulatory inspection. Today, One Voice is asking the Rennes Tribunal to order a new check on Cedre and the implementation of appropriate measures.
On 23 May 2022, after having consulted the 2016 Cedre inspection report (latest to date), One Voice has requested that the Finistère Prefecture provide proof that the numerous problems stated have been resolved. Several letters have been exchanged to obtain these documents and to state that there is currently no evidence of the resolution of serious problems revealed in 2014, then in 2016, at Cedre.
Checks on laboratories
At best, the Finistère Prefecture would have controlled Cedre in 2020 and stated that the regulations here were already being followed. Except no trace of these checks exists, since no report would have been made by the inspector… which is against regulations.
According to this, animal testing laboratories must be inspected every three years (or every year if they keep primates, cats, or dogs). And this frequency must be increased if the laboratory does not follow the regulations, to check more closely.
«They still dare to tell us that, in laboratories that are testing on animals, inspections and regulations are very strict. But since we have been watching them more closely, the reality is totally the opposite. Here, we are talking about a laboratory that has been evading the law for years (and could still be now) and that has never been penalised or even punished for it!»Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice
In fact, the Cedre has not been checked for at least four years according to an inspection there that revealed numerous non-conformities assessed as ‘major’ by veterinary services, which should have given rise to, at the very least, a formal notice.
The Cedre is a repeat offender
On 23 June 2016, the Prefecture revealed eleven non-conformities, of which six were ‘major’. The problems relate in particular to the absence of any qualification among the staff, experiments being carried out without authorisation or with the opinion of the ethical committee, and the absence of any veterinary care for the animals at weekends and on bank holidays.
They had also been involved in the death of several fish with one project. Additionally, the absence of a person holding a competency certification for the use of non-domestic animals in experiments (which was already reported in 2014) is liable to a criminal penalty of a €150,000 fine and three years imprisonment.
Despite this damning proof, the Finistère Prefecture preferred not to punish the Cedre and to leave them to carry on with their activities without checking on them again. They even went so far as to favour them by sending them a new agreement in advance in 2020, while the inspection report justifying this agreement (supposedly having taken place three months before) has never been written.
Faced with this unacceptable situation, One Voice has referred to the Rennes Administrative Tribunal to request that a new inspection be carried out at the Cedre, that a report be written for this, and that the non-conformities that will be seen here will be followed up on. The Rennes Administrative Tribunal will have to decide.
For more information on the animals used in animal testing, the amount of them and their suffering, you can consult the specialist website produced by One Voice: https://experimentation-animale.com.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice