More than two years ago, pictures from the LPT animal testing laboratory near Hamburg shocked the republic. Now the district court in Tostedt has made a first judgment on animal cruelty.
A good two years after the revelations of the conditions in an animal testing laboratory near Hamburg, the district court in Tostedt in Lower Saxony issued a penalty order against a former employee of the operating company LPT.
The 53-year-old former LPT zoo keeper has been fined €900. A spokesman for the Stade public prosecutor said the star.
Two cases of animal cruelty in the LPT laboratory
According to the information, video recordings have shown that the man committed two cases of animal cruelty in 2019. In one instance, he “intensely frightened” a monkey by hitting it against a door frame. In the other case, the LPT worker threatened a monkey with a metal bar in such a way that the animal started shaking.
The man accepted the penalty order, so a main hearing was not necessary, the spokesman said. The “Stader Tageblatt” reported first.
The latest decision will probably not be the last in terms of LPT. In connection with the revelations, the Stade public prosecutor’s office is still investigating several people in charge of the company. It is not yet clear whether and when charges will be filed.
Secretly shot recordings put a strain on LPT
At the beginning of 2020, the animal protection organization Soko Tierschutz published video recordings from the LPT animal testing laboratory in Mienenbüttel near Hamburg, which were secretly shot by an employee who had smuggled an egg. They show a number of alleged animal cruelties: monkeys were beaten, dogs lay in their own blood, cats were treated brutally – the pictures had caused international outrage and led to investigations by the authorities. There were also allegations of study manipulation.
The LPT successor company Provivo Biosciences has now largely ceased operations. As reported by the “Hamburger Abendblatt”, among others, the locations were closed and the employees were made redundant. According to the company, it intends to devote itself to animal-free cell tests in the future. The previous managing director Jost L. has retired. The scandal laboratory in Mienenbüttel is now to become an animal shelter under the leadership of an animal protection association.
Sources: Stade public prosecutor’s office, “Stader Tageblatt” (paid article), “Hamburger Abendblatt”, Provivo Biosciences
