(click here for more photos from the liberation):
“With this communique we claim responsibility for the liberation of 407 guinea pigs from the ‘Bettinardi’ breeding farm, located in via Cascinini in the town of Alzate di Momo, province of Novara, that happened the 5th of September 2013.
Since over 10 years the guinea pig and rabbit farm owned by Giuseppe Bettinardi is supplying the vivisection industry in the most complete anonymity.
We’re not surprised that right after the liberation media tried to hide the truth about this facility, described as a ‘pet animals farm’. Unfortunately for Bettinardi we have all the needed information to finally reveal his ties with animal testing.
Bettinardi breeds rabbits (mostly ‘New Zealand white’) and ‘Dunkin Hartley’ guinea pigs, this breed of guinea pig is used exclusively for research purposes.
We managed to obtain information on countless cruel ‘basic research’ experiments in different italian universities and we know for sure that this farm regularly supplies Milano’s and Pavia’s universities.
We have knowledge of experiments in which guinea pigs bred from Bettinardi have been killed just to remove muscle strips out of their stomachs, so that they could be stimulated electrically in the attempt to establish if the drug ‘Levosulpiride’ has, or not, prokinetic effect (which means that a certain drug is able to activate the intestinal motoric function).
During two other experiments the rib cage of a total of 40 rabbits coming from this farm has been opened, a cannula has been inserted inside while the animals were still alive and conscious and a special solution has been injected in their lungs. The animals have been finally killed, so that liquid samples from their lungs could be collected during a research about the functioning of this organ.
During two other experiments, this time of just a couple of months ago, 38 and 22 rabbits bred in this facility have been killed by exsanguination ( which means that their throat has been slicked and they’ve been left to bleed out until death) just so that vivisectors could remove their rib cage and their lungs in an experiment on the breathing system lubrication.
These are just a few examples of the experiments that this farm made possible supplying labs throughout the years.
Even if a part of the movement, and most people, often focuses its attention on other animals used in research (like dogs, or monkeys), smaller species are still the most used in vivisection. In italy alone 13870 guinea pigs are used in labs in an average per year, while the average number of used dogs is 950. The reaction is often stronger when we talk about dogs probably because persons can easily connect with these animals, or simply because they feel them as more familiar. But the individuals suffering and dying inside research laboratories are many more and our struggle aims to the liberation of each and everyone of them.
Vivisection, inside a capitalist and globalized system like ours, represents one of the most profitable sectors of animal exploitation for one of the most powerful industries in the world, the chemical-pharmaceutical one. The blind trust in scientific and technological progress, pushed forward from researchers and multinationals, it’s the ultimate expression of the capitalist and anthropocentric mentality.
This ideology that it’s presented to us as the unstoppable path of the human race towards a supposed improvement of our conditions of life, is used as a justification for the dominion over nature, the torture and killing of countless non-human animals, but also of human beings used as ‘objects of research’ in poor countries, in jails or mental hospitals.
The Bettinardi farm is composed of two main halls attached one to the other, that are forming a structure divided into several sections, some used for rabbits and one for the guinea pigs.
All the rabbits imprisoned in this farm are kept in tight, empty cages, where they have not the possibility to stand, turn around or make any other movement.
Most of the guinea pigs are kept in wooden boxes in quite big groups, while smaller numbers of animals are locked into plastic cages, in groups from 3 to 5.
In none of the spaces where the animals live they have the possibility to find any kind of shelter, even if for them this is a primary need and being forced to remain constantly exposed is a huge source of stress.
During the liberation we found evidence of surgery procedures performed on the animals already inside the farm. Many guinea pigs show scars or recent wounds in several parts of the body. These animals were kept on a separated part of the room, together with others with shaved areas on the back or identification marks on the fur.
We’ve chosen to describe these conditions to reveal the horrors of this, as any other, breeding farm, but we have no interest in the sizes of the cages, as we aim for nothing less than the destruction of the cage itself.
The home of the owners is a big countryside house located just a few meters from the sheds. All around there are other houses and fields, where we walk to reach the farm. The grass touches our legs while one behind the other we walk unwritten paths. No way out is planned for the animals, but tonight we’ll create a new gap: windows will become doors, the fields ways towards freedom. We’ll give fresh air to our dreams and to the animals who still don’t know what that is.
How many they will be? Will we be able to take away so many of them? Will they be scared?
We are scared, we’re not cold blooded heroes with a fearless heart. Doubts and mistakes are present, but the rage is too much, the hate is too strong. Nothing can take away the will to act so that our enemies will start to be the ones in fear.
Getting closer to the farm we see a falling star, for now just one wish: to come back home safe and sound, with many and many muzzles all around us.
The lookout takes position to check the movements inside the house and during the action we move trying to minimize the noise, while inside someone turns the light on and off, watching a screen, unaware of what is happening just a few meters away.
To cover a little the noise of our movements and the whistles of the guinea pigs there is the ventilation system of the farm and every now and then the barking of the dog of the owner, or of the one of the neighbors, or also the noise of a train passing far away.
We remove the mosquito net from a window on the back side of the shed, on the opposite side of the house, that we found during the preparation of the action. The window is higher than 2 meters, so we put two stairs, one outside and one inside the room where hundreds of guinea pigs are imprisoned.
Once inside we familiarize with the environment and we immediately start to fill the containers that we’ll use to transport the animals.
The night before the action our group discussed for a long time about the possibility of freeing also some rabbits, but for practical reasons we needed to make an extremely difficult decision. In fact, because of the tight dimension of the window from where we took the animals, and of the particular conditions under which the action took place, we’ve chosen to bring away the higher number possible of individuals, and this meant, for obvious reasons of time, space and weight to focus on the guinea pigs, managing in the end to empty almost the whole shed.
We’re truly sorry that we could not free all of them. Those who came with us are now in safe homes with all the necessary cares, they have all the time of the world to forget about the farm and they’ll never get to know the cold hands of vivisectors.
Before going away we leave a message to Bettinardi written on the inside walls of the almost empty shed: ‘Their nightmare is over, yours has just begun’ signed ALF with an A in a circle.
And now let’s run away from here before dawn! We run, but slowly…cause 407 guinea pigs are quite heavy!
Once we’re safe we watch each other, we’re over a thousand eyes and there are no doubts: the ALF won again.
This liberation, as any other direct action, is opening breaches of freedom that the system is not able to recover, going straight to the target. Direct action is an effective tool, but not just that, we claim it politically as it contains in itself our critique of exploitation and our will to fight back.
Sabotages, attacks and liberations are outside of the sad dynamic of ‘legalistic activism’ , they’re showing us the subversive potential of our dreams, and what we can really do if we decide to put ourselves on the line.
Strength and solidarity to those that in the struggle for animal and earth liberation had to deal with state repression and are still resisting.
This liberation is dedicated to you and to those that, with the complicity of the black moon are conspiring, moving in silence to destroy with rage the tranquility of the abusers and open the cages with love.
Animal Liberation Front
PS : With the increasing number of people interested in the ‘animal issue’ in italy we experienced the development of some worrying phenomenons, of which unfortunately we feel the need to discuss in this space.
First and foremost we want to express our repulsion for the attempt of right wing groups and individuals to embezzle the ‘animal liberation cause’, trying to become spokespersons for it, in italy and abroad.
Fascists have always tried to steal and use in their favor several social and liberation struggles, distorting them and emptying them of every content, in the attempt of getting more followers and find space in environments that are historically opposed to their ideals based on authoritarianism and hate for the ‘different’.
It’s a duty for anybody who truly cares about the struggle for animal liberation to oppose, with words, but even more with their actions and with determination, any kind of fascism.
We feel nothing but hate and disgust for ‘animal friendly’ ministers, nazis dressed up like black blocs and those who are using the name ALF distorting the truth about its history and its antifascist roots.