German animal welfare act in breach with directive 2010/63/EU

Abstract

The German Federal Administrative Court recently announced an order (finalized on January 20, 2014) on the neurobiological experiments on primate brains of Prof. Kreiter at the University of Bremen. With this order, a preceding court decision by the Higher Administrative Court of Bremen was established as final and absolute and the last glimmer of hope to end the suffering of the primates in Bremen was extinguished. The court decision had claimed the experiments to be ethically justified. The Federal Administrative Court upheld the court decision and issued the order on the grounds that due to the phrasing of both the former and the current German Animal Welfare Act, authorities had no entitlement to assess the ethical justification of an experiment, but were obliged to approve an application if all formalities were complied with. The impact the order will have on the authorization of animal experiments and testing in Germany caused an outrage in the animal welfare community.